


The Aftermath

by ThroughTheFog



Series: Raising from the Tragedies of War [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi, Updating relationships and such as story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:21:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 54,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3291812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThroughTheFog/pseuds/ThroughTheFog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy has finally come out of two wars alive, thanks to one boy who continually saved him without him realizing it. He has figured out where he stands with Annabeth and now all he is doing is figuring out how to be alone with the only other person he has thought about moving on from him.<br/>Nico decided it was time to move on, only what does that even mean? He has and is in love with Percy going on three years, that can't all just be pushed aside for someone new. And what does it mean when Percy and Annabeth break up, is Nico just going to leave Percy to cope on his own?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. If Only He Knew

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter is establishing what happens right after Nico's confession and how the two of them handle it from there. Please read and comment, this is my first fanfiction ever and was inspired Takara_Phoenix, so if you like Percico then you should definitely check her out.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason finds out through the grapevine that Percy and Annabeth have broken up. Nico is sent to Percy's cabin to try and get him to go with the rest of them to New Rome only to find him sleep deprived and half mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I really wanted to get this posted last night but one thing led to another and it was 2:45 so here you go. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter, it is a slowish build but they do get there, it just takes some help from their friends.

Chapter 1: If Only He Knew

     No one was more shocked than Percy was when Nico came out in front of the entire camp. It wasn’t a disgusted shock, nor would he say that he was really flattered either though. Percy just went numb after the truth came out, and when Nico ran away it was Annabeth to pull the pieces together for him, the two of them sitting on the bunk in cabin three and the both of them pulling at their hair for being so blind.

     “You can’t blame yourself for every little aspect of the wars,” Annabeth tried to sooth him but when she reached out to touch him all she could think of was the darkness that seemed to be clawing its way out of him. He reminded her of Luke, of what had happened in Tartarus, and worst of all what was about to happen between them.

     Percy stared at her in their final moments and smiled the goofy lopsided smile she had grown so annoyed with in the best way. “I just can’t believe this is all happening at once,” he confided to her, “all the shit we just went through and I find out that the one person who has been covering my ass the entire time is done chasing me. What will I do without him?” taking Annabeth’s hand he could feel the tears starting to swell. “What will I do without you?”

     Annoyed she shoved his face out of her lap and glared at him, “You act like everyone is leaving you seaweed brain!” but it didn’t cheer him up, his eyes were still far too distanced. “Just because we are over doesn’t change anything. When did you actually feel like we were a couple anyways? Aside from the first time you kissed me maybe, we have always been friends. Destined to butt heads like siblings and cover each other’s backs because regardless of how things end we love each other.”

     He thought about this for a moment and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling himself back into her lap and closing his eyes; “You’re right, but I still don’t know what to do with the rest of this mess…”

 

_Break_

 

     Nico spent the next two hours hacking away at a dummy with his sword to levitate tension after what he just said. He was so stupid! If he was over Jackson why the hell did he just embarrass himself and Percy, not to mention Annabeth, in front of the entire camp?! Lunging at the dummy he stabbed his black stygian iron sword into its stomach, twisted and yanked to the side sending bit of hay flying everywhere.

     “Remind me to never fight you after a love confession,” Jason’s voice filled the air around him and Nico dropped his sword as though it had been set on fire.

     “What are you doing here?” Nico snapped at him, still not sure how to feel about the guy who broke Reyna’s heart. “Come to try and brother up to me?”

     Jason laughed at that and took the dummy away from Nico before he could go back to massacring it. “Not at all young one,” he pated Nico on the top of the head as he passed and Nico shook the remaining hay out of his hair. “I simply want to know how your conscience is holding up.”

     “I am over eight years old!” Nico yelled at him and balled his fists up at his sides. “And what do you mean my conscience? I’m fine.”

     Not even noticing it Nico had stabbed his sword into the ground and was killing the grass around it, sinking the blade deeper into the soil and causing Jason to chuckle. “Are you sure about that? Because I don’t recall that patch of dirt doing anything to you before. Why keep this all to yourself? I thought we were finally friends.”

     Huffing out a breath of air Nico yanked his sword from the ground and sheathed it on his back. “I still don’t know what you are talking about Jason.”

     “There we go!” Jason jumped up and clapped Nico on the back, just to the side of his deadly sword, “the closed off and grumpy Nico is back! Much better than the murder everything in sight Nico!”

     Groaning Nico shrugged Jason away and turned to a soft knock on one of the wooden posts that lined the fighting arena. Will stood with a nervousness to his stance and Nico laughed at him, ushering the boy into the area with Jason.

     “This is Will,” Nico introduced him and Will stuck his hand out for Jason to shake. “He helped me admit to Percy what I was feeling.”

     “So, he knew before hand?” Jason asked skeptically letting go of Will’s hand.

     “Yes,” Nico nodded and saw the hurt look on Jason’s face. “Not before you though,” he rolled his eyes and turned back to Will, “the kid has gay-dar. Then again it helps that he is forward never straight.” Will shuffled next to Nico and moved to punch him in the arm but Nico dodged,

     “First of all I told you to tell Percy how you feel, not then mask that with another lie you moron! Second thanks for dragging me out of the closet.” Shrugging Nico looked at Jason; “after what I did you really thing people are going to give a shit? Jason is bisexual, I’m gay, your gay, Percy is straight, what is the big deal?”

     “The fact that you are in love with a straight guy? Or at least a guy you think is straight.”

     Jason nodded in agreement with Will and watched as Piper walked in behind Nico.

     “I am not in love with Perseus Jackson!” He yelled at them while gripping his hair. Behind him someone grabbed his shoulder and pinned his arms to his sides.

     “Oh yes you are,” Piper taunted in his ear, “You can’t hide something like that from a daughter of Aphrodite. Once you confessed I could see everything clearly, I was already starting to figure it out before then.”

     “Piper I will put a skeleton in your bed tonight if you don’t let this go,” Nico warned her but Piper just laughed in his ear and kissed him on the cheek.

     “How did I not see how cute you were until all this?” she exclaimed as she let him go and Nico rubbed viciously at his cheek.

     “He is a master of creepy vibes,” Jason mused and hugged Piper quickly before the three of them turned back to Nico. “Underneath it all he is just the little brat all kids are.” Piper squealed and Nico had to cover his ears just to think.

     “How long have you liked him?” she asked and pulled Nico to the benches on the sides of the arena. “Was it love at first sight?”

     Embarrassed Nico hid his face in Will’s shoulder so Piper couldn’t see him blush. “A few years?” he heard Jason snort in the background and groaned, “Okay since I was ten alright! And I’m not answering the second one.”

 

_Break_

 

     The next night at dinner Percy looked around to find a table frustrated. Since the children of Rome and Camp Half-Blood had basically just become one blob of children with schizophrenic parents the seating had been forced out the window. Granted it still happened that most of the Ares/ Mars kids sat together and so on, but it still made Percy think of everything that happened in the war. His old table, thankfully empty, was home for him still and when he sat down the sound of waves calmed him.

     Another tray hitting the table interrupted his soothing ocean sounds and Percy looked up into the dark eyes of Reyna, the Praetor. He nodded as though he had to give her permission to sit which she simply rolled her eyes at and took the spot across from him anyways. “Annabeth is helping rebuild New Rome,” Reyna started before taking a bit of food off of her plate. When Percy didn’t respond she swallowed and tried again. “We are leaving in a few days, are you coming with us?”

     “Probably not,” Percy tol her, his voice sounding deflated. “Annabeth wants to do all the architecture over there and that’s great, but it isn’t for me.”

     “Isn’t Annabeth for you though?” she questioned him while they both picked at their food. Percy had lost weight the past few weeks and she took noticed as he moved the food around on his plate, only taking an occasional bite here and there.

     “Annabeth is Annabeth,” Percy responded blankly, “if she wants me to go I will, but I have home here.”

     Reyna coughed and looked over at Annabeth who was laughing with her siblings at their old table, taking brief moments to gaze over at Percy with concern. “Is something going on between you two?” Reyna asked and shoveled food into her mouth hoping it would encourage Percy to eat.

     Percy shook his head, “Nothing is going on,” he looked over to Annabeth and smiled, “we’ve never been better,” he chuckled and even Reyna could tell that there was more than he was letting on. There was no longing in either of their faces, at least not the longing that Reyna knew was there when she was with Jason.

     Eyes widening she dropped her fork and looked back and forth between Percy and Annabeth; “You two broke up,” she guessed and Percy smiled at her. A genuine smile that she didn’t quite understand.

     “We did,” he told her and then looked back at Annabeth, waving her over to his table, “a bit ago. It just made sense, you have your best friend that’s your lover and your best friend that’s your sibling. Annabeth has always been more my sister.” As Annabeth sat down she smiled over to Reyna, quickly realizing that the Roman knew what had happened.

     “What’s going on you two?” she asked cheerfully and messed with Percy’s hair.

     “Does anyone else know?” Reyna asked and was granted with two blank faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think in the comments and kudos :) I love feedback it is like an addiction for me so feel free to do what you want


	2. Too Bad I Can't Have You

Chapter 2: Too Bad I Can’t Have You

 

News and rumors of Annabeth and Percy’s breakup didn’t start spreading until after Annabeth left, without Percy. That was really the biggest reason for them to start, Roman moral was to keep their cards in hand for play later. No one really wanted to confront Percy on the rumors without Annabeth there, and even Nico attributed the entire separation to Percy refusing to leave his mother after being gone from her for so long.

It wasn’t until Jason was Iris messaging with the Praetor while on assignment to recruit more volunteers to help rebuild the city that he found out it was true. He had called her at a bad time perhaps and saw her kissing Annabeth, so she was forced into explaining to him that Percy and Annabeth broke up a while ago. “You have to be kidding me,” Jason stared at Reyna wide eyed and she re-braided her hair while Annabeth sat next to her blushing and attempting to stay out of the rainbow.

“No, you really think I am low enough to be kissing someone else’s girlfriend?”

Shaking his head frantically Jason tried not to trip over his words while in Reyna’s presence. “I just- I never would have guessed. No one has thought it was seriously over!”

“Well it is,” Annabeth spoke up from the sidelines and narrowed her eyes in Jason’s direction regardless of whether or not he could see her, “but don’t you dare go and bombard him with questions, I will tear your throat out from here if you do.”

Jason moved to get a better angle of Annabeth and saw the most murderous face he had ever seen, including the casted face of medusa that was on his sister’s shield. He jumped back from her just a bit and gave her a skeptical look; “so why are you so defensive about this?”

At that Annabeth softened up the slightest bit; “He is somewhat like the little brother that I never wanted but can’t imagine living without,” she told him, “I always have to figure out ways to get him out of the messes he creates but when it really does come down to it he can do great things. We always have each other’s back but there is nothing more for us to learn, no new side for us to explore and anything closer than what we are feels like we have crossed a line.” Instinctively she leaned into Reyna, “We both need people who can balance us better.”

Reyna wrapped her arm around Annabeth and smiled, “I think this is going to be the new Praetor, what do you think? The Praetors usually are together.”

“What about Percy though? How has he been handling everything?” Jason looked directly at Annabeth and her shoulders drooped. His face dropped as well and the Iris message started to fade out as the two of them waved.

“Try to get him to join us in New Rome!” Annabeth called out to him just before their connection was lost and Jason was left alone on the top of Half-Blood Hill.

 

_Break_

After all the convincing of Jason, Will, Piper, and even Lou the daughter of Hecate, Nico finally threw in the towel and agreed to go to New Rome. He was somewhat upset because Jason had made him promise to stay at Camp Half-Blood and stop traveling after the war, but now that Jason was spending most of his time going back and forth he wanted Nico to go back to New Rome to focus on his education.

There was more than just that, they needed volunteers to help rebuild the city as well but what better way to get a bunch of people into the city than to offer safe schooling? Most of the younger demigods were going, and Nico liked the idea of being close to Hazel again so he had finally agreed. Beside it may be just was he needs to get over Percy Jackson. So for his last day he had a few things he wanted to do, one of which was actually talk with Jason before they had to go to New Rome with a bunch of teenagers.

When he found Jason he was greeted with a lost looking blonde haired jock who didn’t seem to know the sky from the sea, and that could be a problem for a child of Zeus.

Nico stepped closer to Jason and waved his hand in front of him, “Hello, superman? You in there or do I need to get Piper?” The sound of Nico’s voice seemed to wake Jason up and he grabbed Nico by the shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes.

“Percy and Annabeth broke up.”

Everything seemed to stop at that moment for Nico when he heard what Jason said. It was as though he wasn’t awake, it wasn’t a dream come true because it didn’t make Percy his but it gave him opportunity. And then it all shattered when he realized he had these chances before and blown them every time… But Percy must have still been hurting from the breakup, and how would it look if he just quit talking to Percy altogether? Certainly not like he had gotten over him.

Pushing Jason off of him Nico ran a hand through his hair to think, “Have you seen him recently?” he asked casually, trying not look as nervous as he felt.

“No,” Jason caught the blush on Nico’s cheeks and smiled, “I heard he was holed up in his cabin lately.”

“Probably doesn’t want to be bothered,” Nico told him and turned to leave back to the big house but Jason stopped him.

“Actually,” turning Nico around Jason pointed to the cabin, “I need you to go in there and tell him we need more people for the reconstruction of New Rome,” before Nico could protest Jason barreled on, “you’re the only one here that can get in there and have a chance of talking to him,” Jason was pleading and Nico rolled his eyes.

“I swear Jason,” he warned, “if this is some kind of trap—

“It’s not-,” he held up his right hand, “I swear it’s not a trap.”

“If it is, I will drag you into the underworld and you will never leave,” the shadows around Nico began to grow and Jason stepped back from him a good two feet.

As Nico walked down the hill and toward the cabin areas he could hear Jason mutter something about how Nico did still like Jackson and he flipped him off as he continued away from Thalia’s tree.

 

_Break_

Not even the sounds of the ocean was calming Percy down at this point. He had been unable to sleep, eat, or function with the other campers for more than a few hours in a week. Annabeth had only helped for so long, the pain of Tartarus and both the wars was too heavy a weight to carry and Percy would gladly trade his memories to Atlas and hold the sky once more. The few times he went out was to eat, teach sword fighting to the younger campers, and canoe races. Even capture the flag was rare, he only went once because Nico had asked him to team up with the Hades cabin and for some reason it didn’t matter who else was on their team if Nico was talking to him again.

That was another problem he was having. Since the confession Nico had gone to speaking only in passing to him. It was nothing like friendship, not even like what they had before, it was far worse. Percy had thought that he would have had a chance to build a friendship with Nico now that he had gotten that off of his chest, but now there was nothing there. He spent his time exploring camp with Jason and Piper, Lou and he seemed to have grown close, and everyone was positive he was dating Will. And him dating Will had made Percy withdraw even more though he wasn’t sure why, he had no right to be jealous or even spiteful but he was. It was as though he felt Nico hadn’t given him enough chances but in truth he had just been too blind to see them.

And when he did go out of his cabin he felt like a stalker, his eyes always wandering over to The Ghost King, always wondering what he was doing and who he was with. It was odd. He had never been this possessive of Annabeth, or as protective. When he had been teaching swordfight he nearly took off a campers arm for coming a bit too close to getting Nico with his sword.

So instead he stayed in his cabin, sprawled out on his bunk with Batman comics scattered all over him and his mattress. He was currently enjoying one when someone pulled it out of his hands.

“So you like Batman?” Nico di Angelo was standing in his cabin wearing a new bomber, this one made of black leather, and his signature black skinny jeans. His hair was cut shorter on the sides now and the top fell at odd angles but Percy thought it looked cute… actually no, he hated the fact that it made him look at Nico for an extra few seconds.

Nico raised an eyebrow at Percy when he didn’t say anything in response and handed him back the comic, “you have a lot of them. In the Lotus Hotel they had all the new issues that came out. I read every comic written it seems like.”

Finally finding his voice Percy sat up on his bed more and straightened his shirt, “What are you doing here?” he asked as he slid the comics into a drawer on his bedside table.

Sighing Nico eyed the bed as Percy patted a spot for him to sit down. “I heard that you and Annabeth broke up,” Nico told him honestly and hoped for the gods sake that Jason hadn’t lied to him.

To his surprise Percy laughed. Actually laughed an old laugh that reminded Nico of a time before the wars and when Percy first rescued him. When Percy was his knight in shining armor but also his best comedian when he was down and the best to go to with all the big questions about the new and unknown world. It was nice to hear that laugh that could transport a person back in time.

“That is why you broke into my cabin?” he asked, his words broken by laughter.

Nico looked at him slightly dumbfounded, “Well… there really was no breaking in… just sort of poof I’m here…” he cocked his head at Percy, “did you and Annabeth break up or are you laughing at me because I’m being retarded?”

Percy kept laughing and fell on his side, mostly because he was exhausted since he hadn’t slept in three days and before that he had only slept for maybe four hours, but partially because he was overjoyed to hear the sound of Nico’s voice again. “The Ghost King goes poof! That is great!”

“You’re starting to really scare me,” Nico stood up and moved over to Percy, touching his hand to Percy’s forehead and furrowing his brow when he noticed just how warm Percy was. “Are you sick?” Percy shook his head. “When was the last time you slept?” Nico asked as he examined the room that was littered with energy drink cans and coffee cups.

After thinking for a moment and calming down the laughter Percy counted on his hands; “three days, give or take a week.”

“A week?! Really Percy? What the hell?! Are you trying to kill yourself?” Nico quickly pulled back the covers of Percy’s bunk and stuffed him in. “You need sleep.”

“NO!” Percy practically screamed and Nico jumped at the sound of a panicked son of Poseidon. Nico had never heard Percy sound so… Scared. Not even when he willing let himself fall into Tartarus for Annabeth. “If I sleep I remember, if I remember I have to know and live with all of it!”

Slowly Nico sat beside Percy and looked deep into his sea green eyes. “What is going on Percy? Is this about the break up?”

“No,” Percy shook his head and looked back up at Nico, “I just- I can’t dream about what I’ve done.”

“We have all done horrible things Jackson,” Nico told him but Percy’s eyes seemed to fill with tears at his words.

Blinking the tears out of his eyes Percy looked at Nico and tried to figure out how to tell him; “You haven’t. You are good,” he started and he knew that Nico was going to retort when Nico scoffed so he just kept talking, “don’t give me any of that Hades bullshit. You kept in touch with Bob, which saved my life. You kept me from dying in the first war. You let your sister go and she is the only reason we all lived. There is so much more, but you have done everything good Nico where I have fallen short. I only look the hero because I am the son of Poseidon.”

Nico didn’t know what to say so he just smiled and chuckled at Percy before pushing the moron back down onto his pillow. “Thank you for all the feverish compliments,” he hoped that he wasn’t blushing when he spoke, “now I am going to go get you a cool rag for your forehead.”

When he came back Percy was pouting in his cocoon of blankets and Nico wished that he had a camera to capture the moment. He placed the washcloth over Percy’s face and smiled before crossing his arms over his chest, “before I go I have some business to take care of,” he inhaled a deep breath and looked down at the exhausted Jackson, “Jason is here to get as many people as he can to New Rome for the reconstruction. I’m going with a lot of others to join the rest of the seven and he wants you there, so does Annabeth from the sounds of it.”

Percy nearly hit his head when he jumped up, “You mean you’re-,” he stopped short when he saw Nico’s expression and remembered that Nico was dating Will, at least Percy had seen Nico burying his head in Will’s shoulder and chest quite a bit, and Nico was over him anyways… He relaxed and bit and Nico did as well; “you’re going to meet up with the seven?”

Nodding stiffly Nico tried to remind himself that he was trying to get over Percy Jackson and if he let every little joyous expression pull him back in he was never going to escape the vortex.

“Well you can’t very well join the seven if I’m not there.”

Nico felt his stomach flutter against his wishes when Percy said that and collapsed back against his mattress with a content sigh.


	3. Open Up To Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason decides to confront Percy about Nico when the Ghost King decides to take Percy to New Rome himself after a few day of healing. What Jason finds isn't quite what he expects.  
> After being insulted by Jason Nico runs to Will for help with Percy. Will may not tell Nico what he wants to hear, but it is what he needs to hear. And in the end he gets what he needs for Percy too, too bad Percy is barely functioning.   
> Did I mention that Jason decided to leave the Stoll's in charge?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this basically starts Jason's and Will's bigger involvement. If requested I can go into what happened with Jason and Piper later on, I think it could be really interesting but I would like to know what you think. Not quite sure how long this fic is going to be yet, but I am really enjoying it so far, I hope you do as well.

Chapter 3: Open Up To Me

 

After updating Jason about Percy both Nico and him had decided that even though Percy wanted to go he couldn’t leave with them that night. The Romans’ were sending aid to transport all of the younger demigods safely, and children of Hecate were working to cloak a bus in the same spell that the camps were under. Lou Ellen waved at Nico while he spoke to Jason Under the shade of the balcony of the Big House. Chiron was off teaching Archery and Mr. D was busying himself with a drink now that he was allowed one day a month so Jason was in charge of making sure everything continued to run smoothly while Percy slept.

“I can’t just tell all of the others that we are staying behind because the Son of Poseidon needs a nap,” Jason explained and rubbed at his temples as they tried to figure out what to do.

“It is more than a nap Jason!” Nico spoke through clenched teeth as he tried to not grab Jason by the throat and strangle him. “He hasn’t slept in probably a week! If he goes like he is now who knows what is going to happen, remember what you did to Piper the last time you were in a similar situation?”

Jason clenched up at the memory, the image of Piper laying on the floor seizing was permanently etched onto the back of his eyelids. He had been working himself to the edge for both camps and ended up losing control of his powers forcing his girlfriend into a seizure. It was the day he found out that he could overload the human electro brain waves and it was still hard to hold Piper without crying. “You know that I don’t mean it the way it came out,” Jason sighed in frustration.

Raising his hands up Nico looked Jason in the eyes, “He needs the rest right now, but you can’t delay taking the others to New Rome or Reyna will go into overdrive and run the kids we have over there into the ground.” They shared a knowing look and smiled, “She has her heart in the right place but we both know how she can get.”

“Yes,” Jason chuckled, “there was this one time that she-,” he stopped mid-sentence and Nico watched his eyes glaze over. “Never mind, what do you plan to do with seaweed brain then?”

Nico rolled his eyes and leaned his head into his hand to think, running his fingers through his hair he looked back at Jason, “You head over there and I will bring him back when he is all rested. Sound good? Reyna can do without me for one more day if she has all of them,” he pointed over to the group working on the bus and Jason nodded.

“Okay it sounds doable,” looking at Nico Jason felt his heart ache a bit as he flashed back to the dark and depressed little boy he had seen confessing to Eros. “Is it okay with you though?”

“Of course, it won’t be the first time I have shadow traveled more than one person. And this time I won’t have a giant statue to drag me down.” Changing the subject Nico leaned against the railing of the porch and took off his sword to inspect it, a habit he had gotten into when he wanted to be left alone. Generally speaking most people who even wanted to speak to him wouldn’t push it if he was holding his sword.

Taking a deep breath Jason placed a hand on Nico’s, coming close to the stygian iron that would no doubt send his soul to Tartarus, and gripped for the other boy’s hand. “You know I meant it much differently Nico. I can tell that you aren’t over him, do you think you can be close to him for that long?”

“I’ve grown up Jason,” Nico ripped his hand from Jason’s grip and swung the sword over his shoulder to re-sheath it on his back. “Give me a chance to prove that.”

And as Nico walked away Jason had to admit that Nico was right. He was taller than Jason now, even if he was still skinny he had built up lean muscles and his pale olive toned skin was marred with fewer shadows than it used to be. On top of that Nico seemed to be a bit older than he really was which they all attributed to his time spent in Tartarus. His hair had grown out but he kept it maintained and had the top a tad longer than the rest, it highlighted his features well and made him look older. The bags under his eyes had managed to go away, and even if he did still wear a lot of black he spent time with the other campers and was happier.

Tartarus was something he never spoke about though. He had said something about it to Hazel once, but hadn’t gone into detail. There was so much of him that had changed, but something underneath it all was still hurting and Jason didn’t want to see Percy Jackson give him more reason to go back to hiding away.

As he observed Nico walking towards the infirmary, probably to talk to Will, Jason decided that he had better have a talk with Percy before they left as well. Even if the little bastard wasn’t going to let him into his cabin Jason would find a way to talk to him.

“Stolls!” he called out to the bus project and the two Hermes brothers came out from behind the drivers’ side covered in grease and wearing huge matching grins. They ran over to him and saluted, causing Jason to roll his eyes. “Travis, Connor,” he addressed them and they took a step back, “I am going to…” biting his lip Jason knew he was going to regret this, “put the two of you in charge,” he forced the words through his teeth and grimaced.

“Really?” Travis tapped his fingers together and Jason could already see the evil gleam in his eye, “Like in charge of all these magic users? Us?”

“You’re the eldest ones here,” Jason groaned and Connor high fived his brother. While the two of them fist pumped the air Jason covered half his face with his hand, hoping that when this blew up in his face he could find something to pull himself back up with. “I have to go talk to Percy, if you two destroy anything I will strike you with enough lightning to knock you out the entire trip.”

“Oh,” Conner cooed and grabbed his brother by the hips, “Scary _and handsome_. But why are you going to go talk to Percy? The three of us could have just as much fun,” winking Conner hooked his fingers into Travis’s belt loops and pulled him closer.

Trying not to blush Jason pushed them aside, “You two need to find yourselves girlfriends or boyfriends or something,” he grumbled and stomped off towards the cabins while the Stoll brothers laughed at him from behind. On his way by he pulled Lou Ellen aside.

“Make sure those two don’t destroy camp,” he told her seriously.

Lou nodded, her hair that she had pulled back for work was bouncing behind her like a fluffy black tail with all the layers she had put in it. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “but I’m serious. I am giving you permission to use any means necessary to keep those two in line.”

“Any means?” her eyes were wide and sparkling.

“Any means.”

_Break_

“I can’t stand Jason!” Nico yelled as he slammed the door to the infirmary and stomped over to the medicine cabinet. Shuffling through the bottles he tried to find anything for sleep aid while only half paying attention to Will in the background apologizing to a patient and excusing himself.

The foot tapping was a bit harder to tune out.

“What’s going on di Angelo?” Will’s voice was stern and he sighed as Nico continued to rummage through his cabinets. “I will help you find what you are looking for if you just talk to me.”

“I can’t find any dumb sleep meds!” Nico slammed the door shut and turned to face Will, both their eyes set on each other and both of them just as stubborn. “I need some sleep meds for Percy he hasn’t slept in a week maybe more.”

Will gave Nico a confused look and crossed his arms over his chest. He was wearing a lab coat, which was rare, and underneath he had on a faded pair of blue jeans with a Dr. Who Tardis tee-shirt. “And how does this all relate to you hating Grace? We will get back on the subject of Percy in a minute but you came in hear shouting that you ‘can’t stand’ Jason.”

“I am taking Percy to New Rome, but I have to make him rest first so we are leaving late.” Nico started.

“I still don’t see how this is about—

“I was getting there,” Nico groaned and leaned against the door jam. “I am shadow traveling him to New Rome. Jason doesn’t think I can handle it. He acts like I am still the child he saw crushed by Cupid.” Flinging his hands up Nico looked at Will for support.

He didn’t get it.

“Well,” Will started, “can you handle it?”

“Really?!” curling his hands into fists at his sides Nico glared at Will, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I am worried about you. You have been in love with Percy for years, you think your closest friends don’t know that you still think about him? Are you going to be able to be around him, alone, for that long?” Will glared straight back at Nico, both of them refusing to back down to the other.

“I am not a child Will,” Nico’s voice had gone dark and the shadows around him began to curl toward his body.

Will knew that the sun was starting to blind the patients but he really didn’t care as he leveled his gaze with Nico, “Really? Because you sure are acting like one.” Before Nico could respond Will moved into his personal space, gripping his wrist and pinning it to the wall. “You need to realize that just saying you’re over someone doesn’t make it true Nico. Percy Jackson is not just going to disappear and you are going to have to deal with that, whether you actually talk it out with him like I told you to do in the first place or work through it your own way is up to you but you have to make a choice.”

“I did make a choice!” Nico shouted into Will’s face and the ground shook, shadows and light swirling together in a never ending battle. “I chose to move on! Now let me do that.”

Letting go of Nico’s wrist Will pulled him into a hug, the light and dark in the room dividing perfectly down between them as he held Nico, trying to push the pieces back together. “I want you to open up, Nico…” he whispered into Nico’s hair and the light and shadows pulled away, leaving the room feeling cold and damp.

“There is nothing to talk about,” Nico reached up under Will’s arms to grip at the back of his shoulders. “I am fine.”

A chuckle rumbled through Will’s chest when he responded.

“None of us are.”

_Break_

Percy was curled around his personal toilet, a gift from Clarisse after the wars as a laugh, in his bathroom when he heard banging on his door. He groaned and dry heaved into the basin again, nothing left in his stomach to throw up. The memories of drinking from Phlegethon had plagued the small bit of sleep he had gotten and he woke up just to rid himself of his lunch. Now there was an annoying banging that persisted and refused to go away even when he shouted at it.

“I am not leaving until you open this damn door Jackson!” Jason’s voice made Percy’s head pound and he clutched the toilet as though it was his life line.

After another round of heaving he leaned out of his bathroom and shouted as best he could at the Roman, “Can’t really answer at the moment,” he clutched his throat, horrified by how hoarse and gruff it sounded, “in the bathroom.”

“Damn it Jackson,” Jason gripped the knob of the cabin and tried to force it open, “is that really the best excuse you can come up with? If you don’t unlock this door now I will,” he yanked at the knob again and thought, “I will fry the entire lock off!”

Just as Percy was about to tell him to feel free his stomach found a small bit of acid it hadn’t rid itself of yet and he was back at the thrown as he heard a loud crack and the smell of smoke filled his room.

“Percy!” Jason dropped the smoldering pieced of crumpled metal that was left of the door knob on the floor and looked around the seemingly abandoned cabin. He caught sight of the energy drink cans and realized the Nico hadn’t been exaggerating when he said a week. Kicking one out of the way he called again. “Percy I know that you’re in here! I heard—

The sound of horrid human retching filled the room and Jason darted to the bathroom. He found Percy curled up on the floor, his eyes red and his hair plastered to his head with sweat and he was shivering. Jason went into autopilot as he scooped Percy into his arms and carried him to his bed where he set him down and instantly started to wipe the sweat from his forehead and take his temperature.

“I should get someone from the Apollo cabin over here,” he moved to get up but Percy gripped his forearm and held him in place.

The look in Percy’s eyes was one that Jason had never seen. It was broken and prideful yet begging and pained. Jason wined and turned in a circle trying to figure out what to do. “You need help Percy!”

It took Percy a moment but he did finally nod. “I know Jason… I just, I couldn’t take it okay. Let me get better on my own though, the camp can’t afford to see me in that light. Not right now when we are doing so well rebuilding, we need to focus on healing the camps first.”

“If you want to do that then you have to be around for it Percy!” Jason pulled at his hair and looked down at the Son of Poseidon. “You have to be better in order to help us.”

“And I will get there—

“I can tell Annabeth and she can come help—

“No!” Percy sat up and his eyes were dark, a sea in rage with storm. He looked sick, bags under his eyes and his skin had lost its healthy tan but he looked dangerous. “I have been a big enough burden on her as it is. She needs a chance to be happy and I can’t interfere with that.”

Jason stopped moving for a moment and looked at Percy again. Deep in his eyes Jason could tell that Percy knew Annabeth had moved on. “You- you know that she is with Reyna?”

“Of course I know!” Percy would have hit Jason upside the head if he had the energy, “you act as though I don’t talk to her every day!”

“Well I- I just thought that,” fidgeting with his hands Jason tried to not look guilty, “with the break up and that…”

“Why is it that everyone assumes after the breakup Annabeth and I can’t be friends?” Percy’s expression was priceless and Jason started to laugh. “I mean really? She was my friend before, we never got all that serious, and she is my friend now. After everything we have done together you can’t expect us to just hate each other.”

“Fair enough,” Jason wiped a tear from his eye and smiled at Percy. “So if you are both doing so well then what happened?”

Percy felt uncomfortable as Jason’s piercing blue eyes bore into him and he flung his blanket over himself to try and hide. “We weren’t meant for each other. I couldn’t keep up with her interests, she couldn’t try feeling again. I’m not saying that she won’t ever, but she closed herself after everything happened. She tried to put reason to it when you just can’t, there is not logical reason why all of the things that happened during the war happened, but she had to find one. I don’t know if she did but instead of talking it out all we could do was try and tie the broken bits back together,” Percy sighed and Jason was surprised at how well he was able to talk about this. “She can keep me from falling apart, but there is no working through the things I did…”

A new look overtook Percy’s eyes and Jason knew it all too well. It was the same look that scarred his face when he thought of Piper now… “What happened down there Percy?” he asked softly but Percy just shook his head.

“There are some things you just don’t talk about Jason…”

Jason took a deep breath and sat down beside Percy on the bed. “Well I think it will be good for you to have your friends back again,” Jason told him, “so Nico is taking you to New Rome once you have fully rested. No more fucking energy drinks by the way,” he picked up an empty can and waved it in Percy’s face, “this shit will kill you. Do you really want to be known as Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon Hero of Olympus who put a stop to Kronos and defeated Gaea only to die at age twenty five of energy drink overdose?” Percy rolled his eyes at that and Jason crumpled the can up in his hand and threw it at the wall, “If you need to talk come to me, go to anyone you can but you need to find someone.”

“I know,” Percy nodded and tried to get Nico’s image out of his head.

“And if you’re thinking about Nico,” Jason warned getting a shocked expression from Percy that he wasn’t sure how to process, “I swear to the gods Jackson I will blast with so much lightning that it will rewrite history and even your mother won’t remember you if you hurt Nico.”

Gulping Percy looked at Jason with a challenging glare, but underneath that he understood. “Jason, I don’t want to hurt Nico. You have to know that.”

“I do but you don’t have a very good track record in that area,” Jason sighed at the sad look that covered Percy’s face. “Look, Nico is getting better and I don’t want to ruin that. Just don’t hurt him okay?”

“He is over me anyways, remember?” Percy chuckled but there wasn’t as much joy behind it as usual when he nudged Jason in the shoulder.

Jason raised an eyebrow at him but smiled, “Yeah, sure,” he stood up and adjusted his shirt, “he is totally over you.”

Before leaving Jason looked back at Percy, his blue eyes twinkling, “Just remember Percy; I don’t want you to hurt him but I want both of you happy. I care about my friends. Now I better go because I left the Stoll’s in charge.” And with that he left the Poseidon Cabin.

“You did what?!” Percy yelled after him.

_Break_

Nico was holding a bottle of sleeping pills that would put any brand name to shame as he left the infirmary. Will had given him the bottle and told him that Percy couldn’t take more than one or he might not wake up, but they would do the job. The children of Hypnos’s cabin had been working on them for some of the war survivors, they didn’t take away dreams entirely but allowed you to dream of what you wanted instead of what you had lost. At first the pills had backfired, since many of the survivors wanted to bring the dead back, but in the end one of the children in the Hypnos cabin managed to line it with something that made every dream light.

He was listening to the bottle of pills shake in his jacket pocket while he walked over to the cabins when he saw Jason running towards him from the pavilion carrying a basket of fruits.

“Hey,” Jason handed him the fruit, “sorry about earlier… But take these to Percy okay?”

“Oh gods if this is another type of joke Grace,” Nico looked at the fruit and could only imagine Jason trying to set him and Percy up, “he just got through a break up I don’t think he wants me to take him on a picnic.”

Jason shook his head and looked around frantically, “No I just, Percy isn’t feeling well so you might want him eating in his cabin. Anyways I really have to go. See you later!” Before Nico could object Jason was running away towards the Big House waving at Nico as he went.

The basket of fruit certainly didn’t look like it was anything but for making sure Percy ate something so Nico just shrugged and walked into the shadow of the nearest tree to travel into Percy’s cabin. What he was faced with the sight of Percy curled up under the covers shaking as he tried to drink from a glass of water.

“Percy,” Nico rushed over to him but him talking had caused Percy to jump and the glass fell from his hand. Thankfully being a son of Poseidon Percy was able to keep the water up, the glass however fell to the ground and Nico barely had time to catch it before it shattered. “What the hell? I thought you were doing better before I left.” He held the glass out and Percy let the water he was holding onto fall back into the canister while Nico placed the basket of fruits on Percy’s side table.

“I’m sorry,” Percy mumbled and took the glass from Nico. “I was just about to leave when you barged in. Just because you poofed in here once doesn’t mean you can do it whenever you want you know.”

“Please don’t say I poof everywhere,” Nico groaned, “I’m not a fairy.”

Percy smirked as he threw back the blanket, happy to have Nico talking to him again, and let his feet touch the floor. “Too late, you started it,” he stood up to stretch and instantly felt dizzy, the room tilted and if it weren’t for something supporting him he would have collapsed.

Nico didn’t have time to think as Percy started to faint he jumped to his feet and wrapped his arms around the other boy to hold him steady and Percy just gave a contented sigh as he relaxed against Nico’s chest. A blush started to force Nico to feel overheated and he pulled Percy back towards the bed to lay him down.

Of course it would be Nico to catch him. All this time Nico had been there to catch him. Percy relished in the feeling of Nico’s thin yet strong arms wrapping around him and pulling him towards a warm chest. All Percy wanted to do was curl up against Nico and fall asleep, but reality came back and he remembered what Jason had said.

“Are you feeling okay Percy?” Nico asked him, his black eyes wide with panic after having to catch Percy mid fall to the hard floor.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Percy told him and with every ounce of everything in him he pushed Nico’s hand away just as his stomach growled. Nico looked at him and then at the basket of fruit and reached out to grab a pomegranate, holding it out to Percy all Percy could think to do was laugh or throw up again and neither of those sounded like a good option. “Umm…” he grabbed his stomach and looked at the pomegranate again, “Sorry but uh… I feel odd that you chose _that_.”

“Oh gods Percy,” Nico contorted his face and Percy hated to admit that he still found it adorable, “you really think I’m that bad?”

“No, no, it’s just the whole story bullshit.”

“Well you would end up imprisoned in your own room and you have done that to yourself recently so I don’t think there is much of a risk here,” Nico placed the fruit in Percy’s hands and turned away but Percy just tried to stand again. He got dizzy and collapsed back on the bed but Nico still wanted to slap him for it.

Lifting his head up Percy glared into his lap, “I have to get out there—

“Eat the fruit first,” Nico commanded and Percy snapped his head up to Nico who was looming over him. His hands were tightened into fists and he was glaring at Percy so intensely that all Percy could do was break the pomegranate open on the edge of the table and start eating the seeds.

Surprisingly the calmed his stomach. The angry burn that had been there from his nightmares started to dissipate and he could feel small bits of energy returning to him. When he had emptied about half of the fruit he set it aside and stood up. Vertigo didn’t try to claim him this time so he stretched and smiled at Nico.

“Feel better?” Nico asked, watching as Percy started to move and find his slippers. “Hey! What are you doing now?”

Stopping as he tried to get his giant foot into his slipper Percy looked at Nico and his chest hurt with how badly he wanted to talk to Nico. But something worse was happening. He locked eyes with the Ghost King and grabbed his pen from his nightstand; “Jason thought it was a brilliant idea to leave the Stoll’s in charge.” At that even Nico’s face fell and they both headed for the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment on whether or not going into Jason's and Piper's relationship is worth it, I would love the feedback. Let me know if you liked it. The Stoll's are going to have a big part in the fic, along with a majority of the other characters so I am pretty sure this is going to turn into a long project. Anyways check back to see if Connor and Travis managed to destroy the camp or if they were reeled in by anyone in time :) talk to you soon  
> Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	4. Apologies and Realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leaving the Stolls in charge may not have been the best idea, but Lou Ellen managed to take care of it herself.   
> Percy and Nico have far too much to talk about, but Percy is in no condition to do anything other than sleep. Leaving him to rest Nico tried to find a way to talk to Percy without ruining all they have built.   
> Jason puts his feelings into words while Percy is resting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of smut ensues between Will and Jake, I love those two. Nico is still trying to figure out what it means to be a person and not run away from anything. Percy has a looked down on coping skill but at least everyone now knows what it is. I hope you all like this chapter, it took a bit longer to get out due to sickness (do not stay in an infusion room for more than an hour if you don't needs to!) and also a bit of school work but here ya go!

Chapter 4: Apologies and Realizations 

 

Lou Ellen chuckled darkly as she splayed her fingers out in front of her, watching as the small pill sized capsule she kept in her pocket exploded over the Stoll brothers and she played the part of the witch controlling her potion as it stuck them to a tree.

“What the hell Lou?!” Connor yelled at her as he and his brother struggled to get free from the sticky mess that the daughter of Hecate had covered them in.

Travis tried leaning forward from the trunk of the tree only to have his back snap back to the bark from the gelatinous concoction that held him there. “Yeah, I thought you were one of the fun ones!” he complained as his back flared with pain.

“Sorry boys,” Lou Ellen laughed, “I think I find this a bit more entertaining. Katie, this won’t last forever so get these two troublemakers tied down.”

Katie had a small smile on her lips as she watched the two boys she had grown up with get wrangled together and held hostage by a blob of bubblegum controlled by a girl more than three years younger than them. After laughing at their last attempts she sprouted vines from the ground and wound them around the tree to keep the two of them pinned together.

And that was what Jason saw as he came running towards them.

First he saw the Stolls, stuck to a tree with vines and what looked like bright green tree sap; then he saw Lou Ellen and Katie laughing together about ten feet away with the other’s that had been working on the bus. After realizing that the Stolls were not an immediate threat to the camp he slowed down and caught his breath.

“Grace!” the brothers shouted when they caught sight of him. “We may have lost control of the campers.”

One of the boys from Hephaestus cabin came forward and nodded at Jason, “They wanted to try altering the spell so the bus looked like a parade float with giant…” a blush dusted the dark skin of the boy’s cheeks and the Stolls laughed.  “Well with a giant penis as the focal point.”

Even Jason laughed at the way the Jake’s skin reddened with his words. He held his side as he looked at the boy covered in grease and muck. “Well thankfully I told Lou Ellen that she could use any means necessary to keep them under control. Though she may have been a little excessive.” His gaze fell over the two glaring boys of Hermes.

“Well I didn’t want my spell tampered with,” Lou Ellen crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at the Stolls. “I don’t even know how they got the idea in their evil little heads.”

The Stolls looked back and forth between Lou Ellen and Jason, “How could you tell her she was allowed to do something like this?”

Just as they asked both Percy and Nico burst from the nearest shadow with their weapons in hand and eyes wide with expectance of the worst. Percy was in a loose dark blue tee-shirt that Jason knew had seen better days even if it hadn’t seen the sun in a while and a pair of Finding Nemo pajama bottoms as he wielded Riptide through the air.

“What did they do?” Nico had his sword in his hand and had his back to Percy as the two of them spun around to assess the damage.

Once they noticed that nothing was on fire or destroyed Jason could see them relax and take in the others. Percy’s eyes were wide as everyone looked at him, he hadn’t left his cabin aside from teaching in two weeks so once everyone saw him his body went into panic mode and he slunk behind Nico subconsciously. “I thought you said that you left the Stolls in charge,” he spoke over Nico’s shoulder and locked his eyes with Jason’s.

“I did,” Jason chuckled at the change of roles between his two friends.

“Then why is nothing destroyed?” Nico re-sheathed his sword and noticed that the brothers in question were tied up around a tree with Lou standing away from them looking rather smug. “Never mind I think I can pinpoint the mastermind that did that.”

Taking a deep bow Lou smiled at Nico, “Why thank you your majesty,” she cooed and tried to not laugh as she looked back at the brothers.

“Thank you for the confidence!” Travis grumbled at the group of them that had gathered. “And you Katie, really?”

Katie blushed as the brothers looked at her. “I just want to get to New Rome boys,” she sighed and walked away as though she had done something wrong.

Sighing Nico turned to look at Percy, just in time as the son of Poseidon gripped his arm and Nico was suddenly supporting his weight as he tried his best not to pass out. “Percy!”

Jason watched as Nico wrapped Percy in his arms and knelt to the ground, guiding Percy with him and taking the sword from the other boy’s hand. Percy’s body shuddered and he retched onto the grass. His face was a mask as he looked at the other campers. Taking in the situation though Nico pulled shadows around the two of them and they were gone.

“Is- is Percy going to be okay?” Travis stared at the spot where Percy and Nico had just been but they didn’t come back.

Nodding his head Jason smiled, “I think Percy is going to be just fine.”

_Break_

 

Percy was terrified as he saw the others watch him fall, even more ashamed as he lost the small amount of food left in his system on the grass besides Nico. Thankfully Nico had taken them back to his cabin and had him splashing cold water on his face from the fountain while Nico got him a glass of water and the other half of the pomegranate.

“I’m sorry for throwing up right next to you,” Percy groaned as Nico placed the glass of water next to him on the edge of the fountain. “I know it wasn’t cool…”

The next thing he knew though Nico slapped him across the face. His skin was still stinging as he heard the rustle of Nico’s clothes beside him and he turned to meet a pair of large black eyes. Nico had sat down next to him and was holding the half a pomegranate in his hand, his hair fell into his face and he was somewhere between glaring and pitying Percy.

“What the fuck are you talking about Jackson? Not cool? You need to eat something and sleep,” placing the piece of fruit by the glass of water Nico sighed, “Don’t you think I just might have an idea of what is going on?”

Nico watched horrified with his own resolve as Percy bat his long ebony eyelashes, the brightness of his green eyes set off by the black of his hair. “I… I don’t get what you’re talking about…” Percy admitted and slumped forward.

“You’re suffering?” rolling his eyes Nico pointed to the pomegranate; “After Tartarus all I ate was pomegranate seeds for weeks,” he watched Percy shrink into himself and smiled, “Not your fault it took that long. But the bottom line was, not only was that all I had, but that was probably all I could have stomached. The damage on the body is pretty bad,” Percy listened intently and remembered how the seeds of the pomegranate had helped soothe his stomach. “I’m surprised Annabeth didn’t tell you all of this honestly.”

Shaking his head Percy looked at the floor, “We never talked about… What happened. She spent a week getting better and when she was around it was a topic that didn’t get brought up. I never told her what was happening…”

Resting a hand on Percy’s shoulder Nico looked deep into his sea green eyes and could feel the strain on his heart that he had been running from. “Percy, we all figure out ways to cope with what happened… Even those of us who didn’t fall into that hell like Jason, there was and is a lot that we all have had to straighten out. Jason lost all his confidence after the war, he lost his legion and his past to follow Piper. Hazel lost all of her innocence and the ability to look for the bright future she had always wanted. Even Leo can’t crack jokes at the speed he used to. But moving on is what we have to do to stay sane in this mixed up world, and we need to find you a way to cope.”

“I am too broken to piece back together Nico,” he said softly and lifted to glass of water to his lips.

“No you’re not,” Nico’s voice was stern and he leaned in closer to Percy, “I will save you Percy.”

Percy wasn’t sure what came over him but he leaned against Nico, letting the younger demigod’s lips press into his forehead. If he hadn’t had just gotten sick he probably wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from kissing Nico right then. “You’re always saving me.”

_Break_

There was an odd feeling in Nico’s stomach when he left the Poseidon cabin. He had given Percy one of the sleeping pills he had gotten from Will and forced him to eat the other half of the pomegranate before laying down. Nico remembered the feeling of Percy’s skin against his own, how his lips had pressed onto Percy’s forehead and how pleading and loving Percy’s eyes had looked when Nico said goodbye.

Bottom line was he had to get out of there or he was going to say something that gave him away. He didn’t realize how much worse it was with Percy being available and needing his help. The last thing he wanted to do was put more pressure or make things awkward around Percy when he was needed most. So after leaving cabin three he headed towards cabin one to see if he could catch Jason before he left for New Rome.

When he walked up to the door it was wide open and he could see Jason stuffing clothes into a bag. He knocked on the doorframe and smiled sheepishly when the Roman turned to him and waved him in.

The Zeus cabin was probably the most uncomfortable cabin to in. It was large and barren, nothing like the welcoming cabin Percy was in or the comforting darkness that his own provided. Jason had tried to make it better by posting up photos of him with Piper and the rest of his friends, but it was as though Zeus’s statue was just waiting to strike them all off the walls.

“Hey,” Nico clasped his hands behind his back and walked over to where Jason was packing his things. “I think Percy will be okay to leave the end of tomorrow, being around his friends will help him…”

Zipping up his bag Jason swung it over his shoulder and looked at Nico; “Let him know that my offer is still open. He will know what I mean by that.”

Glancing at the blonde suspiciously Nico asked, “Have you told him what happened to you?”

“No,” Jason shook his head, “I- I couldn’t do it when it would have been helpful… He doesn’t need to hear about what I did, or if he does it will be when he asks.”

“He did something down there,” looking at his feet Nico tried not to think about the sad look that had filled Percy’s eyes, half terrified of what he had done. “I just don’t know if I can help him if he won’t tell me…”

A soft smile played on Jason’s lips, “I get the feeling he will,” when Nico looked up to him he coughed, “I mean I think he will open up to you. Both of you went through Tartarus so you have something in common to bond over…” If anything was going to happen between Nico and Percy it had to be because one of them got up the nerve to talk to the other.

“He and Annabeth went through that hell together,” Nico sighed, “I should have her talk to him. They know exactly what the other is going through, or at least more so than I could.”

“No,” Jason warned Nico before the boy got any ideas, “Annabeth and Percy handled their experiences drastically different. She showed her true Athena side and reasoned everything with any logic she could, her emotions were put on the backburner while she fixed herself like a design that needed to be upgraded. There was no way for them to see eye to eye on what happened down there…”

That made sense to Nico in some ways. “Maybe Percy did something to Annabeth… That would explain why her trying to reason it would make him feel even worse. He started to cope by just not going to sleep and she coped by delving into the logic…”

“And how did you cope?” Jason asked but Nico’s cold glare made him instantly regret it. While they all may understand that the three heroes were no longer the same there was no way for anyone but those who had been through Tartarus to relate to what it was like. Nico had his way of coping and it worked for him, but he was never willing to share it with even Jason. “Maybe, maybe you should tell him what you discovered of your powers… It might be time for that.”

“That I pulled his body up from the bottom of the river Styx? I don’t see how that could help him at all right now.”

“The look in his eyes when he talks about Tartarus,” Jason softened and sat down on his bed, “that is the same look I know I get when I think about—

“About what you did to Piper?” after Nico finished it for him Jason nodded. “Well I need to let him rest first,” Nico looked back at the door, desperately wanting to get out of the piercing eyes of Zeus.

The other boy stood up and stretched, agreeing with Nico. “I am going to head out though, the kids are getting restless and I need to make sure I don’t keep Reyna waiting.”

“Not to mention Piper will kill you if you aren’t home for dinner,” Nico joked but Jason’s smile didn’t reach his eyes the way it normally did.

_Break_

Only being able to watch from the window of the infirmary was heartbreaking. Will wanted so badly to go with the others, all his friends leaving for New Rome. But he was needed where he was, at least for the next week until more people left he was stuck where he was to tend for the injured.

Jake Mason walked in just before they were about to take off. His body streaked from a Mediterranean tan to a solid black from grease and his clothes even had scorch marks in spots where he had been to careless. Will waved to him and strolled over to the taller demigod with a washcloth and pocket full of alcohol wipes. “What brings you in here other than needing to clean out those scrapes?” Will asked as he approached Jake.

There was a tension in Jake that Will wasn’t use to, “I may have just wanted to see you,” he joked and held his hand out for Will to examine. There was a large cut straight through the palm but other than that he seemed to be fine so Will grabbed gauze and proceeded to wrap him up.

“You know,” Jake drawled, looking for something to talk about as the sun kissed demigod before him wrapped his hand with white bandages. “I really wish you were going to go with us.”

“Yeah,” Will chuckled as he finished up, “who else would bandage you up every time you push yourself too far?” He felt his stomach flutter and wished that for once he could just look into Jake’s eyes and not want to run away.

Before he could process what was going on Jake had his chin pinched and lifted his face to be level with Jake’s. The color of his eyes a steely green blue unlike any other campers, the eyes that could pull Will into them and never let go. “You are the only person I trust with this medical crap,” Jake told him just before pressing their lips together and pulling Will closer to him.

“Well I sure hope I’m not interrupting anything,” Nico’s voice was a snicker as he watched the two boys in front of him finally figure things out. He had gotten tired of Jake coming into the infirmary for every little scrape and bruise just to see Will.

Turning around Jake gripped Will possessively, “Yes actually.”

After he held up his hands Nico laughed again, “No need to be jealous,” he said as he moved around Will, “just a friend remember? Granted I wouldn’t hold it against him if he had oogled my ass a time or two.”

“In your dreams,” Will kicked Nico and turned back to Jake. “I- I wish you had decided to do this before you were going to be gone for at least a week. Until I can see you again anyways.”

“I was hoping you would realize what was going on every time I came in here,” Jake laughed at looked down at Will, “just, promise not to run off with anyone else while I’m gone, okay?”

Will wrapped his arms around Jake and pulled him into an even more romantic, deeper kiss. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said just as Lou Ellen called his name to, in her words, ‘get your ass on the bus.’

“Please get going,” Nico begged, “I can’t take any more of this love shit.” 

Jake laughed as he ran out and Will turned towards Nico. “That is just because you are suffering through your own ‘love shit’ as you so nicely put it.”

All Nico could do was intently glare at his own reflection as he looked to the mirror on the back of the door to Will’s office. “I honestly thought I had finally buried these feelings,” he admitted and let his head fall towards the floor, his bangs fell into his face and cast shadows over his eyes. “That boy makes me want to firmly hold a pillow over his face for a few minutes.”

“Already talking about murdering him,” Will placed his hand over his heart and laughed, “it sounds like true love little Nico.”

Nico picked up a bag of plastic covers for thermometers and threw it at Will’s face. “Won’t you take this seriously for one minute? I mean this isn’t really a new problem but I have to deal with the little shit known as Percy Jackson for the next couple of days. On my own Will, how the hell am I supposed to do that?” he leveled his gaze with the one Will was giving him and eventually fell back, knowing full well what Will was going to say.

“I thought you were ready for this,” Will’s voice was low and he stepped closer to Nico, “I am going to tell you once more, go talk to him. Percy has been different lately and if you aren’t going to talk to him about your feelings then you can’t hold anything he does against him. The boy needs a friend though Nico, he has been through a lot. Besides,” he smiled at Nico and patted the boy’s shoulder, “you have always been there for him before.”

“Maybe you’re right,” heaving a great sigh Nico looked out the window past Will and thought about Percy, “maybe it is time for me to have an honest talk with him.”

After he squeezed Will’s shoulder and moved toward the door he could hear the other boy telling him to let Percy rest. His mind wasn’t on going to Percy at the moment though, he knew it would be wrong to interrupt the boy’s sleep, so he melted into a shadow to go back to his cabin and contemplate all that was on him mind. He was going to have to figure out how to talk to Percy before the two of them started to fall into old patterns.

_Break_

_Dear Percy,_

_There is always something that happens in war and that something leaves even the ‘winning’ side at a loss. Great heroes are not meant to live with all their shortcomings weighing heavy on their minds and yet here we all are. Broken as a clock that refuses to tick we are still expected to move forward. Time will tell who rises and who falls, but fear not for there is hope for all of us. An apology is in order for all that has happened and while coming from me it may mean little I must say that all I can see now is a road. There is no happy ending to dream of, just the same trudging path before all of us. Yet even on that path I see crossings and those are the important parts of life._

_Do not put it past life to never let your path cross again. Something very important and special is about to happen if only you let it._

_-Jason_

He folded up the paper and placed his glasses back in his bag before slipping the note underneath the cabin door. Jason had always been better with written words than speaking, the speaking could all be left to Piper, and he hoped that Percy would find his apology soon. The reaction he had to Percy needed an explanation, but even that was something that Jason couldn’t force through the end of a pen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this came out okay, and I please comment and kudos. The next chapter Nico and Percy are actually going to talk! About important things! So I stay tuned for that. Also someone is waiting in Nico's cabin, any guesses on who that might be?


	5. In the Eye of the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy and Nico finally are forced to admit their feelings for each other as Percy's nightmares wreck havoc on camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a short update but I know that I needed to post a new chapter and who can resist PercyXNico fluff? Besides the two idiots really needed a good chapter :)

Chapter 5: In the Eye of the Storm 

 

The middle of the night the medicine that Nico had given Percy wore off. It probably had something to do with the fact that Percy had thrown up most of it, but the bottom line was that around one am his dreams shifted from painting pictures of him with a blonde woman who coddled him into a large looming shadow that pulled him down into an abyss. He fell forward towards the darkness, red eyes glaring at him as he plummeted down and was swarmed by monsters.

_Break_

 

Nico wasn’t sure what stirred him from his sleep; whether it was a basic instinct of knowing what Percy was in pain or if it was just the odd sound of rain pattering against his roof. He tossed the covers off of himself though and ran outside.

Camp Halfblood never got rain unless the fields needed it, so when his skin was assaulted with icy crystals he looked up at the sky. It wasn’t cold out but as the frozen rain pounded against the earth Nico had chills shoot up and down his spine. There wasn’t even time to throw on shoes as his mind went into protective mode watching campers from all the cabins stick their heads out to see what was going on.

The Poseidon cabin was the eye of the storm, not that it surprised Nico. He didn’t even bother knocking, just threw himself through the shadows and burst out at Percy’s side. Percy was clutching his own chest, short gasps of pain covered by his pillow and tears soaked into his sheets. There was no thinking about it as Nico reached out and brushed Percy’s hair back from his face and knelt by his bedside.

Never in his life did Nico think he would see his hero a broken mess like this. He ran his fingers through Percy’s wavy locks of hair and tried to bring him back through words alone.

“Annabeth,” a pained cry came from Percy and Nico pulled his hand back. Of course Percy was still in love with Annabeth, the breakup was only a little bit ago and when you have been through so many life and death situations there is a bond there that can’t be broken easy. So why did hearing it hurt so much?

Before he could put much more thought into it he felt as though everything inside of him was being burned. He looked at his body and saw blush dusting all of his skin, he coughed but there was liquid blocking his throat and he was finding it hard to breathe. His arm lifted up on its own and placed it back on Percy’s head as all the fluid in his body returned to normal. A warm feeling still spread through his body, but Nico looked down at his hand and then at Percy’s face. So this was what Percy could do.

Contact seemed to be soothing Percy’s nightmares, but Nico needed to wake Percy in order to stop the storm that had started to grow. Every time that Percy jumped thunder clashed in the sky and campers cried out in surprise.

“Percy,” the name came out as a whisper at first but Nico knew he had to wake up the one sleeping soon. It turned out to be easier than he expected, the moment that Percy started to cry for Bianca there was nothing to stop Nico from seeing the boys tears as he remembered what happened. Percy was broken from the past and Nico couldn’t bring himself to run away again, especially when his running was what had been hurting the one he loved.

Another whimper escaped Percy’s lips; “I made Nico hate me…”

“I don’t hate you!” he almost shouted at Percy and the sound forced Percy’s eyes to open, revealing the flared pupils of a scared sea prince. “How could you think I hate you?!” The two of them stared at each other stunned into silence as the storm outside sent the howl of wind and the ice hitting the side of the cabin became violent.

“… Nico?”

The hurt look that filled Percy’s eyes made Nico hurt. He instantly moved away from the green eyed boy and willed the shadows to wrap around him. How could he have thought this was a good idea?

Unfortunately for him before he could travel away Percy gripped his wrist and held him tight. “Please, don’t run away again.” The shadows let go of their grip on Nico’s body as he heard the pain in Percy’s voice and sat on the floor in defeat. Percy looked at him as though he had just found a pearl inside a clam, his eyes sparkling with wonder at Nico yet still showing the pain of his dream. Thunder shook the cabin and Percy jumped, forcing the covers to fall on the floor.

“I won’t,” Nico muttered under his breath, catching the slight widening of Percy’s eyes when he looked up from his pillow. “What?” he grumbled and grabbed the blanket before standing up and tossing it over Percy’s shivering body. “I just said that I won’t leave again, it isn’t a big deal.”

Percy relished in the motions of Nico’s long, nimble fingers as they smoothed the blanket out over his half naked form on the bed. His pajama bottoms rode low on his hips since he had lost weight, and he had thrown his shirt on the floor after smelling it. “I never know when you’re going to stay.” He said sadly, his eyes roaming over to the bag he had packed after waking up the first time and finding Jason’s letter. The thought of life getting better was hard to grasp, but Percy was hoping that the seven would help lift his mood in New Rome.  

After he sunk back to the floor Nico avoided eye contact with Percy, choosing instead to look at the floor and all the trash that littered it. “If I say that I will stay, then I will,” he stated bluntly and before he knew it Percy was gripping his chin, the bony fingers still strong and lifting Nico’s face to meet the hurt filled green eyes.

“You haven’t always said you would,” he told Nico, watching as the words soaked in and Nico moved a bit farther away. “Ever since she passed you haven’t been able to look at me, and to be honest I never really looked at you. The two of you were so much alike, not just in looks but how much you care as well. She… well I am sure you have talked to her but you never gave me a chance to tell you what happened. Bianca wouldn’t give herself the credit she deserved. She was a hero only possibly surpassed by you.”

“Children of Hades don’t become heroes,” Nico’s voice was cold and flat, making Percy want to cry. But Nico knew that he had heard enough about Bianca, he knew his sister and he didn’t need someone else to tell him how great she was because not even Percy could understand the half of it.

“She didn’t just save all of us,” Percy leaned just a bit out of bed and although he knew that talking about Bianca would hurt Nico he needed to say just this; “She saved me. She was smarter, had a better chance of getting out of the machine alive, but I was going to go and she stopped me. Bianca told me to be there for you and I failed that.”

Shivers ran down Nico’s back, he had figured that Percy had tried to do something stupid like that but he didn’t think it had been his sister to stop the moron. He remembered one of the last conversations he had with her before she chose rebirth; remembered how she had told him that her death had been to protect something even more dearly to his heart. Stupidly he had thought it was the dumb doll she had been trying to get him, but it had been Percy. A wave of pain hit Nico’s heart as he looked at the one person Bianca had protected, protected for him, and he knew that tears were starting to escape him. Percy gripped Nico’s hand as he tried to cover his face and pulled the younger boy into him, embracing him in a hug so tight it felt as though the sea prince was trying to force him back together.

“I am so sorry Nico,” Percy murmured the words into the boy’s hair, “I wasn’t worth the protecting…”

Nico froze, his tears still falling slowly down his cheek and he pushed back from Percy to look into his eyes. The pain there now noticeably because of how much he was struggling through what Bianca did.

“You can’t help who you are Percy,” Nico told him, “Bianca saved you because she knew how… Well, how I felt. But just because you can’t love me back doesn’t mean that she didn’t save someone worth saving.”

At that Percy blinked slowly, meeting the dark eyes of di Angelo as the two of them sat there holding one another like life lines. “Love you back?” he brushed hair out of Nico’s eyes and watched as he turned bright red.

“I- I didn’t mean anything like… Well I mean maybe at some point but- it just isn’t as though—

Percy placed a finger of Nico’s mouth to make him stop babbling. “Nico, do you love me?” he asked softly, the storm outside calming down to a slow beat of raindrops splashing against the cabin.  

“I- I-,” his tongue didn’t want to form any words as he looked back at Percy. “Percy,” he gulped and leveled his gaze before forcing his hands to stop shaking.  “None of that matters now okay? We are friends now. None of that matters now.”

“If we are friends why can’t you tell me then?”

“Because it doesn’t matter!” Nico snapped.

“Oh right, because you have Will now. Sorry I forgot,” annoyed Percy pulled back from Nico and another strike of thunder started a more furious round of hail.

After raising an eyebrow Nico jumped to his feet and pointed at the window; “What the hell is this about Jackson? Do you see what you’re doing? Why the fuck do you care so much about this now?!”

Now Percy was up on his feet, staring Nico down and feeling the wind and rain whip around the cabin. The sound of the boards under his feet creaking and the roof swaying above them reminded him of the power he had held in the wars. “Are you such a dumb, self-resenting being that you can’t tell when someone cares for you?!”

“So now I’m stupid?” Nico felt his temper flare and the shadows inside the cabin began to shake and morph around both him and Percy. The ghosts of the past residences came to view around the son of Poseidon and he smiled as he watched Percy bat them away. “You’re not the only one who can fight Jackson!”

He watched as Percy glared at him, a hint of astonishment in his eyes as he watched the shadows shake and the ground beneath quaked, neither of them sure if undead would crawl out or if it was just Percy. “Out of all of that all you got was me calling you stupid?”

There was no way that Nico could be that blind, is there? Percy stepped closer, their hair moving in a wind that began to surround them as though Zeus himself was tired of watching them dance around. “If that was all you got Nico then you’re even denser than I am.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Nico glared back at Percy, refusing to take a step back as the son of Poseidon advanced on him.

Sighing in exasperation Percy gripped the front of Nico’s shirt and pulled him closer, meeting the dark black eyes with his shining green ones before pressing his lips onto Nico’s harshly. The sensation of the storm raging around them made them both feel euphoric and Nico wrapped an arm around Percy who was holding his face tenderly with one hand, the other still firmly clawed into his shirt. When they parted Percy had his pupils blown wide and all the wind around them picked up pace, the window had been forced open by the wind and rain was hitting both of them in the eerily lit room. No lightning struck but Nico still felt a shock go through his body as Percy shouted; “I love you!” over the howls and cries of the dead.

And just like that all of the storm erupted in one go; shadows were forced back and out along with the wind and rain. Everything around them died down and Nico could only imagine what the other campers were thinking as they watched all of it unfold. But the moment was short lived as Percy and Nico both realized what happened and the silence overtook them along with exhaustion.

They collapsed onto the bunk Percy slept in and Nico basked in Percy’s scent as the two of them slipped away from consciousness.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review and kudos if you enjoyed, or if you didn't then feel free to tell me. I am planning on uploading the next chapter rather soon so stay tuned for it! Nico's visitor shows up and Jason gets to New Rome, so we will see how all that plays out.


	6. Damage and Friendship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason isn't sure where all of this is going but he is glad to be back in New Rome with Piper and Reyna and all his students. Piper is curious about Percy and Nico. Hazel is angry that she caught Percy bringing Nico back to their cabin in the middle of the night; and Nico can't remember what all happened the night before. Will isn't even willing to help him remember so what is he supposed to do? What happened between him and Percy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is another update since the last one was really short. Did you think I was going to have everything be fine and dandy with Percy and Nico? Come on, when is everything ever fine with those two? Hazel shows up though, can't wait to get into her story a bit, but right now all she is focused on is her brother. I absolutely love their sibling relationship! Please enjoy :)  
> -Megara

Chapter 6: Damage and Friendship

 

Jason arrived to New Rome just in time to see Reyna and Annabeth kiss goodnight before he checked in with her. He smiled at how happy the two of them seemed to be before accepting a hug from Annabeth as she left Reyna’s office, her face bright red. “I see the two of you have been enjoying spending time together,” he smirked at Reyna as he sat down across from her at her desk.

Her eyes were guarded as she looked at him an he knew that they still were not on the best of terms. “It seems that way, yes,” Reyna told him and found the papers she needed, “She is a strong counterpart that I can rely on.”

“You deserve that,” Jason told her honestly and took the stack of papers she was holding in her hand. He had left New Rome for Piper, but no matter how well he got along over there he was still the Son of Jupiter, never Zeus like his sister. Thalia got along much better at Camp because of her heritage, even if they had the same parents. So when Piper and Jason had gone to Rome it was nice to feel a part of the community again. He looked over the papers carefully, noting that each of the students he brought with him were going to be spending quite a bit of time with Reyna as they filed everything with the city. “Is she going to be the new Praetor?”

“No,” with a quick shake of her head Reyna started to shuffle through her papers and try to organize them, “She is much too busy with all her renovations and such. Besides both of us have talked about it and while she may have earned respect from the city, it is probably still a bit too soon for us to have a child of Athena in office,” Reyna smiled out her window and down at the remains of New Rome, “small steps.”

After heaving a great sigh Jason stood up and stretched his hand out to Reyna, “Well if you need any help I am here.” Her eyes sparkled slightly when he said that but Jason didn’t wait to see what that meant. Instead he shook her hand, the firm grip bringing back the memory of when she congratulated him for making Praetor.

“Goodnight, Reyna,” he coughed and turned to leave, a warm feeling filled his heart and he hurried out.

_Break_

When Piper caught sight of Jason coming home she smiled and placed the plates down on the table just as he opened the door. “How did everything go?” She asked cheerfully before sitting down at the table and waiting for him as she served both of them Macaroni and Cheese, since that was about all she could cook.

“Nico stayed behind for a day,” Jason sighed and collapsed into the chair across from her, seeing her flinch at the sound made his chest clench with remorse. Ever since her seizure Piper had been jumpy and nervous around him, and he couldn’t be upset because he knew that he deserved it. “He is bringing Percy back with him though. They just needed a night to rest.”

Piper raised an eyebrow and that and waited for more information, but Jason just put a mouthful of food into his trap and smiled. “This is delicious!” he exclaimed and took another bite, smiling up at his girlfriend like she was made of diamonds. “You are a great cook.”

“Thank you,” she chuckled and then wiped her mouth, “so what are the developments with Percy and Nico?” it may be rude to pry but she had grown to like the Ghost King and she was still waiting for Nico to admit to Percy that there was still something there. She and Annabeth had talked about it, but Annabeth agreed that the two of them needed to admit their feelings on their own.

Jason sighed and then chuckled, it was true that Percy and Nico had become a major part of both of their lives. Both of them wanted their friends to be happy, yet it seemed as if neither of them cared about happiness anymore. “I think they will be okay,” he admitted, “I went and talked to Percy… Well actually I went to tell him that he better not drag Nico on, but he was,” he ran his hand through his hair and looked down at his now empty plate with a look of utter self-hatred for what he had done. “I think Percy is sick.”

“Sick?” Piper dropped her fork onto the floor and stood up, “Why hasn’t he told anyone? We should go back to camp… You should have stayed to look after him.”

All of Piper’s worry was giving Jason a headache and he took her hand to try and calm her; “I think he didn’t say anything because everyone would react like you just did,” he chuckled, “Percy was the hero of two wars, which puts a lot of strain on a person. He doesn’t want everyone worried about him because he doesn’t know how to handle that.”

Thunder crackled overhead causing Jason to jump and sending a mild shock through his hand. Piper yanked away from him and Jason couldn’t help but show the hurt on his face as she rubbed her fingers. “You were the hero of wars too Grace,” her eyes were warm but something was missing from them that had been since he had hurt her long ago; “and you fell apart after the war. If I had asked for help maybe you wouldn’t have…” The end of that sentence hung in the air and Jason got up from the table.

“I lost the ability to lead Piper,” he confided to her, “joining the Greek side stripped all my authority as I followed Percy and Annabeth’s orders. I don’t- I don’t regret what I did, staying with you was… Well I wanted to. But I feel like I lost a part of myself doing that, and it took a long time to find it again,” their eyes met and she smiled at him.

“Have you found that part of you yet?” she asked softly and waited for Jason to respond.

_Break_

The next morning when Nico woke up he was thankful that he was back in his own bed. Unfortunately for him he wasn’t alone.

Above him was a head of cinnamon brown curls and golden eyes. Hazel was glaring at him as though he were covered in mud and slimy green goo. “You want to tell me why Percy brought you back here so early this morning?” she narrowed her eyes and waited for him to respond but all he did was rub at his forehead. “I deserve to know Nico, you’re my brother.”

Once he finished yawning Nico tried to remember everything that had happened last night, but his memory was fuzzy on the details… “Percy was freaking out last night so I went to go calm him down. There was a storm in camp and we fought…” that was where things got hazy, “I think I got him to stop…”

Hazel rolled her eyes and went to the door, swinging it open she pointed outside; “I think you were a bit late on the stopping him part.”

Where the courtyard was had been filled with rubble and the dirt paths were was rivers of mud. The fountain in the center was cracked open so none of the water was able to stay in it, the damage spread just out past the edge of the courtyard and thankfully stopped just before the fields.

“Wow,” Nico tossed the covers back and walked to the doorway for a better look; “I didn’t think the two of us did this much damage…”

“Yes well I would say you did,” she huffed and moved to shut the door so the two of them could change. Nico was in nothing but a baggy black shirt and grey boxers so she really didn’t want him seen by the entire camp. She herself was in a tank top and short shorts so that was even worse, but it had been all Piper had packed her before she left on her quest. “Both of us need to change so we can gather supplies and head back to New Rome before Reyna has a heart attack or slaughters all of the new arrivals.”

Nico chuckled as he took a clean pair of pants from his dresser and shrugged into them, “I think Reyna has a decent distraction to keep her from flipping,” he caught the curious look Hazel threw him and laughed, “You didn’t hear? Where have you been?”

Once her shirt was on Hazel knew that Nico was looking back at her and she blew her hair from her eyes to meet his gaze, “Some of us still have to go and do things Nico. Reyna sent me to find the hunters so I could have them send a representative to make arrangements for if they ever needed shelter in the city. Too bad I don’t get along all that well with those girls, they want someone to meet them later so they can be guided back. Thalia asked for Annabeth.”

“Well while you were out playing diplomat Annabeth has been having her own fun. Reyna and she are an item now from what I can tell,” he watched Hazel blush just before the fabric of his shirt fell over his face.  

Hazel wasn’t sure what to think about her Praetor dating Annabeth, the Athena girl was brilliant but ever since the war she had turned cold and distant. “I thought she was still dating Percy,” her face contorted into one of deep thought and Nico smiled as she stuck her tongue out to concentrate.

“Well baby sister,” he wrapped her into a hug, one of the few people he was so close with he could do that, and planted a kiss on the top of her head; “I think that Annabeth wanted something different. According to Percy the breakup was mutual.” Just mentioning Percy’s name made Nico’s heart hurt and he started to regret letting himself get close to the trap again.

Laughter erupted from Hazel as she pushed Nico off of her, “I see you’re in a good moos,” she smiled and kissed his cheek, “any particular reason?”

“I’m-,” Nico hesitated and thought, but his head hurt when he tried, “I’m not sure.”

“Find out,” Hazel ordered before slipping on a pair of boots over her jeans, “Because I want you to be this happy more often,” with a wave of her hand she left the cabin to go get supplies and wake up Percy.

Leaving Nico alone.

Sighing Nico decided to throw on his shoes and go find Will. Maybe that boy would have an idea of what to do to help with this headache. He left the cabin through the shadows to avoid the mess outside and found himself in Will’s office not a second later.

The blonde doctor did happen to have an idea of what to do. That idea was a hot mug of coffee. He laughed as he watched Nico drink the bitter liquid and make a face with each sip, but the caffeine started to kick in and Nico was thankful.

“So aside from a fuzzy memory what did you come in for?” Will asked as he took the empty cup from Nico and went over to the sink.

“I really wanted something to try and remember,” Nico admitted but will just shook his head.

“Sorry, that is specialty and I won’t give you any unless it is life and death. All you did was get into a fight with Jackson last night and exhaust yourself,” he laughed and offered to refill Nico’s mug, “did you finally tell him?”

Nico furrowed his brows, “I can’t remember!” he growled frustrated, “I don’t know if I did or not,” letting out a groan Nico let his head fall against Will’s shoulder. “Please Will?”

“Absolutely not,” Will scolded him but set the mug down and embraced Nico in a hug, only to feel Nico tense underneath him; “Percy wasn’t able to get his hands on that kind of medication after his memories were stolen, so neither will you after a bad night. Besides the memories will come back quickly if you let them,” his smiled down at Nico just to receive a dramatic eye roll. “Anything that I can actually be of use for?”

Taking a step back from Will, Nico pulled out the list Jason had left him with; “I need everything on this list before Percy, Hazel, and I leave for New Rome.”

A glossy look came over Will at the mention of New Rome. He hadn’t even had a boyfriend twenty four hours and he was already across the country, but he took the list from Nico and read it over. “I will have this ready in fifteen minutes. Want to hang out?”

After looking around the empty infirmary Nico nodded, “Sure just let me know if anything needs to be done.”

_Break_

Last night had been odd. Percy remembered telling Nico that he felt something for him, remembered the two of them yelling at each other, and remembered kissing Nico. But before they had time to figure out what all of that meant they had passed out on Percy’s bed.

Waking up next to Nico was pleasant. It was the first night that Percy had slept peacefully. But he felt dread as he thought of what he had done; Nico had finally started to be happy. He had Will and friends now. He had gazed at Nico, who was wearing no more than an oversized t-shirt and boxers, but knew that it wasn’t fair for Nico to wake up with him. So after selfishly relishing in holding Nico as the boy slept restlessly curled up next to him Percy picked him up and left the cabin. Outside was practically destroyed, but Percy ignored it as he carried Nico around the edge of the destruction to his cabin.

It all would have gone smoothly; the rest of the campers were still asleep and the sun hadn’t even shown itself yet. The light outside was a beautiful pink and purple hue as Percy pushed the Hades cabin door open and was faced with a set of fierce yet kind golden eyes. Sometimes Percy wasn’t sure who was more threatening; a calculating Annabeth or a protective Hazel. She had grabbed Nico from Percy, the boy stirred into half consciousness that she instantly soothed away before slamming the door in Percy’s face with a look that said she would be talking to him later.

That had forced Percy back to his own cabin; he figured he owed it to Nico to try and get some rest. All the caffeine in his system was starting to be flushed out so his body could use a few more hours laying down at least.

He had been able to doze, waking and eating a section of pomegranate seeds before collapsing back on his bed again. The storm the night before had taken a lot out of him but he was thankful he was finally able to rest.

When he did wake up it was to the pounding on his cabin door. “I need to talk to you Jackson!” Hazel’s voice sounded oddly terrifying and Percy contemplated not opening the door. Then a sharp point came through the wood and he could hear Hazel yell as she yanked her sword back out. He bolted for the door and swung it open, barely missing a ruby that came hurtling towards his head.

“Why were you carrying my half naked brother around in the middle of the night?!” Hazel fumed and forced her way into Percy’s cabin.

“Come on in,” Percy muttered under his breath but was silenced by the glare she shot him.

Sweeping her arm out Hazel looked around the room disgusted; “And what is this? Did the two of you get hyped up on sugar and caffeine all night? I swear if you kept Nico up all night playing video games—

“It isn’t like that Hazel,” Percy laughed and made a mental note to clean his room before anyone else came in. “I was having a bed dream,” he pointed to the window, “apparently it resulted in that. Nico came over to try and calm me down…”

“Oh…” Hazel sighed and then raised an eyebrow at Percy, “Then why was he half naked?”

Percy felt his cheeks get hot and knew he was blushing; “He- he came over here like that! Must have come straight from bed. Then the two of us crashed here and I kind of felt bad so I brought him back to his cabin.”

“Good,” Hazel nodded and Percy wasn’t sure what to think.

“Good?”

Another nod, “I know that Nico likes you Percy. I’m glad you’re not leading him on. If you hurt him I would hate to send you to the underworld, but Nico is my brother and he has done a lot for me.”

Astonished Percy gaped at her, “So you would kill me?”

She shook her head, “I probably would hate you forever though. And I may tell my father to take you to dungeons, but you are too close a friend to do that to.”

Wiping the back of his hand across his forehead Percy sighed with relief. Hazel was officially more terrifying that Annabeth. “Hazel?” he asked softly, seeing her warm eyes made him want to open up to her. After the war he had distanced himself from his friends and it was nice to have her back with him; “Do you really think that Nico still likes me?”

“I don’t think he is the type to let people go,” she told him. “Why Percy? Is there something you want to talk about?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this update, please kudos and comment anything you would like. The next chapter will be up soon, I'm still not sure how long this is going to be but I love what I have done so far so just let me know what you think. Also next chapter is going to have Annabeth with Reyna before going to the hunters so that should prove interesting.   
> Love you all!  
> -Megara


	7. How Many Times do I Have to say: I care about you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a lot for everyone to do in order to rebuild New Rome. Reyna is cracking down on everyone to make sure things get done, but Percy takes the rest of the day to relax. Him and Annabeth reunite and Frank takes him to what is left of the city. Then he is taken to his dorm where Nico and the others have finally got the electricity to work, only to find he will be sharing his room with Nico himself. Nico doesn't understand what Percy is trying to apologize for and a few secrets come out before they realize that they are free to be with each other. But can Nico actually let Percy in? Or are there still somethings he can't overcome? Annabeth finally finishes her plans for Artemis's/ Diana's temple and she just might be trying to impress someone with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I hope this is a decent chapter, a lot going on with all the couples right now but don't worry there will be plenty of drama. Please enjoy and let me know what you thought of it in the comments :)  
> -Megara

Chapter 7: How Many Times do I Have to say; I care about you

Nico watched with curious eyes as Percy made his way up the hill with Hazel. Will handed him a bag with everything they had asked for before wrapping Nico into a tight hug.

“Tell Jake that I miss him,” he told Nico before leaning in closer and whispering in his ear; “and let him know that when I get there I will make sure everyone knows he is mine.”

“You pervert!” Nico jumped back from the feeling of Will’s breath as the blonde laughed against his ear.

Hazel looked worryingly over at Percy as the two of them walked up to Nico. She knew now that Percy had basically broken up with Annabeth because he had realized he hadn’t been true to himself through the wars. Everything was equal between those two and yet she hadn’t been able to bring herself to tell Percy that he had it wrong between Will and Nico. Some deep down part of her had to remain loyal to Nico and make sure that Percy truly cared for him and wasn’t just in shock from her brother’s confession.

But watching him now she was starting to see that there may be something true here. His face fell as he watched Nico and Will engage in their rough housing and had the decency to look away from them. All he really wanted was for Nico to be happy, and perhaps it was too late for him to be the one to cause Nico to smile anymore.

“Have fun you guys,” Will gave an encouraging pat on Percy’s shoulder as he left Nico at the hill, “and let me know if you need anything,” he gave Percy a look that was obvious he knew that Percy had something going on but offering help just made Percy realize how perfect the blonde was. It was impossible for Percy to dislike Will regardless of how jealous he was of the son of Apollo. He smiled as Will left them all together on the top of the hill, waiting for Nico to say that it was time to go.

“Come on Nico!” Hazel looped her arm through his and smiled at her brother; “time to bounce!” Her hair moved as she jumped up and down next to him and he smiled at her enthusiasm.

“Well,” Nico hesitantly shifted his gaze to Percy who was standing awkwardly off to the side. Perhaps Nico had said something to him last night and now Percy couldn’t even look at him. Hazel reached out before Nico could do anything though and pulled Percy towards them.

“You have to hold onto Nico if you don’t want to be left behind,” she laughed as though it was some big joke and Percy gripped Nico’s forearm. Nico looked up at him but shrugged off any nerves so he could focus on getting the three of them to New Rome.

_Break_

Jake had been hoping that the blonde doctor from camp would have joined the two children of hades but he was still happy to see Percy and Nico standing with each other, actually touching one another. He had spent enough time around Will and Nico to desperately want the boys to go through some sort of breakthrough. Over half of the time that the son of Hades spent with Will was him going on about Percy this and Percy that; it got annoying because Will saw Nico as a little brother and put all his energy into helping the younger boy.

But he tried not to hold that against either Nico or Will. If anything he had grown attached to Nico and found it annoying that Percy couldn’t see what he was missing by not going after the boy always lurking in his shadow. Though he knew that it was not fair if Percy were straight, Jake had been around and seen how Percy adored Luke before the war. He had seen the fall of Percy after Luke died, and it was hard to say whether or not he was jealous of how close Annabeth was to the damaged son of Hermes because he was in love with her or in love with him. Percy was too much of an open and honest person to care about genders and such, even if he was straight he wouldn’t cut Nico out of his life simply because the boy was gay.

So when he saw Percy storm away from Nico the moment they were steady he had to glare at the green eyed boy before he approached Nico. “What the hell is his problem?” Jake huffed and looked back towards Nico.

“He hasn’t been feeling well,” Hazel’s golden eyes gazed at Percy as he retreated, maybe seeing how he had reacted to Will and Nico had been a bit overdone but she knew he cared. But how was he going to get past it?

“Maybe he should look at removing the pole from his ass,” Jake snorted and turned back to Nico; “any news on when Will can join us?”

Nico shook his attention away from Percy’s retreating figure and back to the tall, dark skinned son of Hephaestus before him. “He doesn’t know when he can make it to New Rome,” he admitted, “although he is trying to get over here next week, ha had a few… ideas, of things the two of you could do.” A shudder ran through Nico as he remembered the whisper of nasty things that he wanted relayed to Jake but Nico couldn’t force the words out.

Seeing the bright red blush on Hazel’s and Nico’s cheeks Jake laughed; “Well I can’t wait to have my boyfriend back. Him and you really have no boundaries, do you?”

Another shudder ran down Nico’s spine and he started across the construction site towards what was serving as Reyna’s office. “I’m going to go check in with boss lady,” he called back at them and heard Jake laughing.

“Tell her we all want lunch!”

Being back in New Rome made Nico feel both uneasy and ecstatic at the same time. New Rome had been the place he had found Percy, been the safe haven he brought Hazel to, was a home for him when he needed it even if not everyone wanted him there, and most importantly had been where his family was staying these past few week. He had been looking forward to the idea that Annabeth had of New Athens but all of them knew that before making a new city they should fix the one that had been destroyed. The cities were something that Nico found hard to grasp, a permanent place for him to live was like a fantasy.

As he got close to the hut that Reyna had assembled for himself he laughed; she was standing outside talking with a few of the workers and noticed him. Without even letting the workers finish explaining she ran from them to Nico, wrapping him in a hug and smiling. He went frigid at the touch but eventually relaxed. They had fought side by side and slept together as Coach watched their backs on the trip to bring Athena’s statue home, he could not find a way to have stayed distanced from her.

“Oh Nico I am so glad you are here, I love seeing you especially now! I need all the help I can get with this reconstruction!” She let him go and was already dragging him towards the inside of the tent where her desk was.

“Is that why you kidnapped half of Camp Half Blood under false pretenses of easy school experience?” he chuckled and collapsed in a chair in her ‘office’. 

She laughed at him and took her own seat, crossing one knee over the other and smiling at him; “You are going to be entertaining the idea of school as well Mr. di Angelo,” she brought out a folder and handed it to him. “I think starting you off as a junior is fair?” once he lowered his eyebrow and rolled his eyes she continued; “I figured your history is fairly advanced but you still need to finish up those last couple years.”

“Oh thanks,” his voice was thick with sarcasm but he signed the papers inside and handed the folder back to her. “I brought Percy along,” her face filled with worry but he waved away her concerns; “he is already heading over to the fifth cohort’s bunks. But I figured putting him into classes would be a good idea as well. He won’t go for it but his mom will force him,” he chuckled at the thought of Sally Jackson marching across the country to wake her son up for classes. The scary part was that he wouldn’t put it past her, ever since Percy got back from the wars Sally was adamant of making sure that she didn’t act as though everything was different. She didn’t want her son to think she felt he was too broken.

Reyna smiled at Nico; “look at you taking care of big shot hero Jackson,” she joked but Nico leveled a smirk of his own.

“From what I have heard you are caring for a big shot hero yourself,” he chided and dodged a pen she threw towards his face. “Just pointing out the obvious!” with a pout he leaned back in the uncomfortable chair, “but really I am offended Reyna, I had to make sense of the grapevine to figure out that Annabeth was with you! Falling for another blonde I see,” he wagged his eyebrows while Reyna found another pen to throw at him.

Once three pens failed to his the dark clad boy Reyna huffed and brushed a few strands of hair from her face so she could glare down her nose at Nico. The air of regality that surrounded her was powerful and Nico thought for a moment that he should bow. “I am allowed to have a personal life Nico,” her voice was flat as she spoke to him and Nico knew that she was pushing him back from her. “I am not just Praetor.”

Agreeing Nico nodded, “You’re my friend as well,” he reached out and took her hand in his, the fabric of his fingerless gloves rubbed over her fingers, “just remember that.” Nico of all people knew how hard it could be to let people in, and the fact that the few that had been a part of Reyna’s life left her was hard to handle. Though Nico was friends with Jason, there were times when he wanted to hit the son of Jupiter over the head with a two by four. What he had done to Reyna, choosing a relationship built of false memories, had not only been stupid but it had nearly lost them a war. Relationships should be built gradually, not forced together out of fear of being alone and Nico knew that was what happened. Before leaving Nico pulled Reyna into a hug and held her tight, she shook underneath him but he just gripped her tighter and hold her together so she wouldn’t fall apart. It reminded him of a hug he had gotten once, one where it felt like if the other person had let go he would have just burst to dust.

_Break_

Shadow traveling was something that Percy figured he had forgotten about. He had traveled with Nico once before on Mrs. O’Leary’s back, and even that had been exhilarating. But it was nothing like actually holding onto Nico while they were consumed by shadows and felt like they were flying, when he had his hellhound with him Nico and Percy didn’t have to touch the way they did now. He hadn’t realized how powerful Nico felt when controlling his realm that way, or how protected Percy had felt in the dark with the one person who was capable of taming its shadows.  

And all of that, all the rush he had felt and the comfort he had taken in being held by and holding Nico. None of it could mean anything. Nico had acted like their kiss never happened, and Percy had been impulsive and not thought about Will when he forced the kiss on Nico. Now all he felt was guilt for what he had done, and to a happy couple. At least Nico didn’t seem like he was going to rat Percy out to Will.

But did Percy really want that? Why was he still so unhappy if he had gotten to kiss Nico?

The bunks of the fifth cohort loomed over Percy. It was one of the few remaining bunks, and he knew that he could stay somewhere else but he almost didn’t want to. The crumbled end of the bunks was little more than crumbled brick but it was still the first place that Percy had stayed when he came to New Rome the first time. Aside from these bunks the only place that would feel like home might be the Neptune temple, but that was out of the option.

“Hey!” a familiar voice called out and Percy was jumped from behind by a man with two large arms. “Good to see you coming back!”

He turned and clapped Frank on the back before laughing; “Well I realized that you guys can’t function without me so I thought I would swing by.”

“Good to see your still down to earth there,” Frank smiled and brushed some rubble from his short cropped hair before turning back to look at the wreckage. “We are rebuilding as fast as we can. Reyna thought that it would be a good idea to do the bunks first, then the temples, and then the other buildings. Annabeth is designing most of it; the barracks and all student living will be more like dorms, and I know she has been having a hay day with the temples and the rest of the city. The school was rebuilt already, done with the student housing before Reyna wrangled a bunch of the younger demigods to help with the rest of the city.”

Percy cringed, “Time to rebuild and you start with a school? Sounds like something Reyna would do. How has Leo been handling all of the rebuilding since he got back?”

“Well Calypso is here with him, but I have no idea how that ball of fire keeps up with everything Reyna is dumping on his plate. He spends a lot of his time working on ideas with Annabeth and while he does that Calypso explores the ‘Roman camp’ as she keeps calling it.”

“At least he is staying busy. That kid’s ADHD is off the radar even for a demigod,” Percy chuckled and silently thanked the fact that Frank was acting normal around him. Ever since they had been back from the war people either treated him like some great hero or like he needed to be tip toed around. He wasn’t sure which was worse though; the tip toeing around was annoying but there was at least a caring thought behind it. The kids who ran up to him and wanted to hear about his ‘amazing’ or ‘epic’ tales bothered him. A generation of children were looking forward to the next war, looking forward to possibly being the next Percy Jackson, and they had no idea that all he had done was let people down and hurt inside himself.

Even Annabeth cringed when people asked her what it was like fighting titans and Gaea, she was still tormented by the curses left on her. Percy was able to handle what the curses entailed, but Annabeth had seen the pain she caused and hated it. Now she faltered with her dagger, not enough to notice all the time but enough for Percy catch. He was too worried about her to think about what would happen if she went out on another quest, but lately Chiron had left quests to other campers and the seven focused on training and rebuilding. It was a good change even if it made Percy restless.

He and Frank walked in absolute silence, making Percy feel comfortable as the sun bled through the clouds above them. His skin was pale from all the time he had been spending holed up in his cabin, and he hadn’t realized how much weight he had lost until the wind hit his shirt and the fabric swayed away from him like it was two sizes too big. If he wasn’t able to start keeping some food down he was going to wither away to nothing…

As they reached the top of the hill between the temple area and the city Percy caught sight of the new building that they were doing. Some of the city was still intact, and they had a few people working to clean those few buildings up. A rickety apartment complex casted a shadow over the area where Percy had shown up with Nico, and tents dotted the grass like white balloons. He knew they were probably set up for various assignments but most people seemed to be crashing in them when it got too hot. Behind all that, in the center of the wreckage was a brand new building with gleaming white marble columns and a red brick façade walls with tall open windows and high towers. It was as though gothic fairytale architecture and roman structures clashed and formed something perfectly Annabeth. That was all it showed him, a beautiful castle with Greek and Roman influences that screamed Annabeth and all her brilliance. He stopped and gaped at the structure and the nearly finished dorms that encompassed it.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Frank hit Percy on the arm to wake him from his daze. “Annabeth is quite the architect, her mother should be proud.”

_Break_

How Percy could be more adorable Annabeth would never know. She caught sight of him as he stood with Frank on the top of the hill; if there had been a tree beside him it would have reminded her of the sight she saw before the wars when she had left him to stay with her father. All of it was heightening her mood; the buildings and the fact that Percy had finally joined them. Reyna nudged her to go and see the boy, laughing at the bright blush the rose up in her cheeks. She knew that Annabeth and Percy talked nearly every day and they had a bond that could never be broken.

“Percy!” Annabeth cried and threw her arms around Percy. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming? I’ve missed you so much!”

Percy coughed and wrapped his arms around her in response. “I have had a lot going on,” he let himself smile and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I figured this would be a good surprise.”

“Oh it is!” Annabeth felt a tear fall down her cheek and hastily wiped it away. “You have lost weight,” before she could stop it the words slipped out and both of them let go of one another. Her mind instantly went to where it always goes when the thoughts of Tartarus started to darken her mind. “It’s been getting warmer so your body is probably just getting rid of all its winter weight.”

“But fall is coming,” Frank stated the obvious and received a glare from Annabeth as she tried to find something else to say. Her face was nearly panicked and her brow furrowed as though her mind wasn’t coping with the statement.

Before she could have a breakdown Percy came to her rescue with a laugh. “I’m sure you’re right Annabeth,” he patted Frank on the back, the two of them sharing an understanding to not push farther. “I’ll meet you down there Frank? We can catch up.”

“You got it,” Frank smiled and ran down the hill towards the work.

Annabeth and Percy stood in silence for a while before he finally reached out and touched her again. She flinched away from him and he shoved his hand back in his pocket. “How have you and Reyna been?” he asked tentatively, not sure how much an ex was supposed to ask about their ex’s new relationship.

As always though, Annabeth set him at ease with her laugh and smile. “Don’t be so stiff Jackson,” she chided him and linked her arm through his before leading him down to the field of tents and workers.

_Break_

Jason hugged Nico as they finished up the final touches on the dorm rooms before leading him to the room he would be staying in. After hooking up the electricity all of them were excited to see the light switches actually do something because despite the hope they had all put in Jason the boy didn’t seem to be an electrician. At one point he had gotten frustrated and overloaded the circuits. It caused them an extra two hours of work but no one was all that upset with him.

After talking to Nico and then getting a report on Percy from Frank, Reyna decided to let the son of Poseidon have the day to himself. It also kept her girlfriend busy so that was good.

“The rooms are large,” Nico commented as he looked around. They were designed for students of course, but they had large beds on each side of the room and windows over each headboard that looked out to the courtyards. The beds were comfortable and a long yet low bookcase divided them like a nightstand would. On the outer sides of the beds was an individual nightstand and then along the wall each had their own dresser. Bathrooms were shared between the rooms so four people would be sharing, and then there was a closet and two desks per room. “I guess Annabeth was tired of people ending up on the floor after seeing the Hermes cabin,” he laughed and slid the books he had picked up for school onto one of the shelves.

“That would be my guess, and she also didn’t want the whole dorm sharing one bathroom,” Jason laughed, “Although the public baths are already open again.”

Nico licked his lips at the thought of catching Percy in the public bath but he quickly hid the action by collapsing on what he was deeming his bed. “So who is my roommate? And bath mates? I couldn’t stand sharing with a bunch of dirty people Jason, you know me so I hope you hooked me up.”

He could hear Jason take in a sharp breath and he sat up on his bed to look at the other boy. “This is kind of funny but umm-,” Jason had a smile on his face that Nico desperately wanted to smack off but before he had the chance there was a knock at the door.

Percy walked into the room with blush on his cheeks. Jason hesitantly waved his arm over the other boy to usher him towards the rest of the room. “Nico I believe you and Percy have met?” Jason earned himself a glare from both Nico and Percy before he nervously chuckled, “You two will be rooming with each other from now on. Hope you two get along,” before he could be yelled at Jason ran out of the room and shut the door behind him. He wasn’t sure what Reyna had been thinking when she stuck Nico with Percy but right now he just didn’t want to be around when the shit hit the fan.

“Sorry to intrude,” Percy muttered and tossed his bag onto the bed opposite Nico. “I hope this won’t be a problem.”

Still glaring at the closed door, Nico only caught part of what Percy was saying. “What?” he asked as he tore his attention away from the wood and looked at his new roommate. Percy was wearing a pair of workout sweats that didn’t quite fit him anymore and hung low on his hips. The shirt that was loose as well showed just a hint of his stomach as he stretched and the dip of his v and hipbones was prominent enough for Nico to want to drool. Despite the weight that Percy had lost he still had muscle definition and Nico could see what used to be as he gazed over Percy’s body.

Letting himself collapse on the bed Percy looked up at the ceiling while he spoke. “I just mean that I hope I won’t bother you.”

“You’re not enough to fluster me Jackson,” Nico huffed and tore his gaze away from the smooth skin that showed the flexing of muscles with every movement Percy made.

That made Percy sit up straighter than Nico had ever seen. The two boys locked eyes and Nico thought of how soft Percy’s lips were, as if some part of him already knew their textured and how they would be forceful to dominate a kiss. “I hope you brought some pomegranates or other fruit so you won’t be taking up the bathroom. You share this one with people.” Nico tried to hide his blush as Percy looked him up and down.

“I should apologize,” Percy sighed and Nico raised an eyebrow at him. “For last night. I shouldn’t have done what I did but I really wish that you would quit acting like it didn’t happen.”

Nico blinked at that and thought for a moment. He had been sure that he had done something to upset Percy the night before, so why was Percy apologizing? In fact Nico had made sure to give Percy his space to cool off, was this all about the storm? “Percy, it isn’t like you were really in control of your powers last night, there isn’t a need to apologize to me. Although I must admit that you’re powers are very interesting.”

“Interesting?” Percy wasn’t sure what Nico was referring to.

“Well yeah, I mean I didn’t realize that you could control the water in a person’s body. Though it isn’t as surprising as Jason controlling electromagnetic waves inside the human brain.”

Panic filled Percy as Nico spoke and he shifted on the bed. “You- you saw me controlling-,” he was stuttering but he couldn’t believe that Nico was being so calm about this. “I- I am so sorry Nico. Gods I thought everything else I did to you was terrible. Did I hurt you? Gods no wonder you pretended like nothing happened.”

“What?” Nico got up from his bed as Percy started to hyperventilate. “Isn’t this what you were apologizing for? Percy you didn’t hurt me at all… Calm down.”

“I can’t calm down if I did that to you!” Percy had tears gathering in his eyes and he flinched away from Nico. “There is no apologizing for that! I- I- oh gods now I have done that horrible thing in front of both of you. Gods, I can’t- I shouldn’t let anyone get close to me.”

A hand came down on Percy’s cheek at that. He turned and saw Nico glaring at him as though he had just killed Hazel. “Percy, don’t you dare talk like that. If you do, I will- I will beat the crap out of you and then drag you around so everyone else can beat you up. You are not allowed to say that you aren’t worth people caring about you. What would Annabeth say? What would your mom say?”

Still in shock Percy lifted his hand to his cheek. “My mom would probably cry,” he admitted, “Annabeth did to, but I scared her. I scared her in that hell hole, and I scared myself.”

“You were in Tartarus,” Nico growled, “Of course you are going to discover your inner most power down there. Especially with protecting Annabeth. My powers came protecting someone I cared about, Jason’s came out when he was protecting someone… That’s how we find out just what lengths we will go to for people.”

Percy paused and looked at Nico; “You can do something like that too?”

Another sigh came from Nico and he scrunched his eyebrows together like he wasn’t sure if he should tell Percy or not. “It was a long time ago—

“I promise I won’t judge,” Percy swore, he didn’t know why but he needed to hear what Nico had done.

“I-,” he sighed again and closed his eyes, he would never be able to look at Percy when he told him this; “I can control bones. Even the skeleton of a live being… When I was eleven I saved someone from drowning because I couldn’t let them go.” He could feel his cheeks heat up while he spoke.

An odd silence filled the room until Nico finally opened his eyes to see Percy staring at him with disbelieving eyes. They were so large, bright and yet broken as he looked at Nico. “Can you please stop staring at me?” he begged Percy but Percy just blinked at him.

“You, you saved someone? From drowning?” Nico nodded as Percy spoke. “That is so sweet Nico… You said they were important to you, who was it?”

Nico couldn’t believe this. Was Percy really that dense? His face must have shown how dumbstruck he was because Percy was quirking an eyebrow in a way that made him look even more adorable. “I’m sorry, it is probably personal. I didn’t mean to pry.”

“That isn’t why-,” shaking his head Nico laughed. “Never mind, it is just that I thought you would have figured it out. I mean I didn’t have many people in my life back then so it isn’t hard to realize who was important to me…” Gods Nico hoped he didn’t actually have to come out and admit that it was Percy.

“Yea…” Percy blushed and looked away from Nico, “You weren’t around camp much though. Or me,” his smiled slipped of his face and Nico instantly felt sorry for all those years, “I guess it was probably someone you met on your travels. Or Will…” there was something nearly guilty when he said Will’s name that Nico didn’t understand.

“Gods Percy,” Nico groaned, “I didn’t meet Will until years after that, and it isn’t like I had friends outside of camp. That would have just put people in danger. Come on what happened when I was eleven?” Percy still looked lost and Nico sighed, “There was more reason to you nearly burning away after you were pulled from the river than you think that year. Someone had to pull you out,” Nico rolled his eyes and looked away from Percy.

He heard Percy scoff and felt the boy adjust on his bed; “I guess I should have figured it was me,” Nico refrained from any comments he had, “You were always saving me, weren’t you?”

Regardless of how the words hung in the air Nico still refused to look at Percy. “What were you apologizing for earlier then?” he asked hesitantly. He wanted to know what had happened that night but Will had already told him he would need more rest for the memory to return.

“Oh,” Percy started to fidget with his hands and neither of them made eye contact. “I guess I just felt bad,” he paused like he expected Nico to say something there. “I shouldn’t have pushed you the way that I did, I don’t want anything to happen between you and Will but I figured you deserved to know… Especially after everything we had talked about…”

Great, that told Nico next to nothing. He knew that he had no chance finding out now without flat out asking Percy so he turned and caught Percy’s eye. “I really feel stupid,” Nico admitted, “but I am guessing that I was so exhausted that I don’t remember half of what happened last night… Will told me my memories would come back with some rest but I’ve been working all day. The dirty little bastard wouldn’t give me anything to force them back either, he is being all moral conscious since he got with Jake. So would you mind explaining to me what happened?”

“Wait,” Percy held up a hand and looked at Nico; “Will and Jake?”

“I tell you about memory loss and you want to gossip about my friend and his lover, whose love life I know far too much of and it hasn’t even started?” Nico gave him an astonished look and crossed his arm. “Damn it Percy just tell me what happened last night!”

A small smile found its way to Percy’s lips against his will. He had been so devastated that Nico had Will that he couldn’t help but feel as though he had won a marathon looking at Nico now. Knowing that his crush was available and the two of them were bantering almost as they had last night. “Well I guess it is only fair that I am oblivious since last night I kissed you and you still didn’t get the message that I care about you apparently.”

Nico was stunned to silence as Percy looked him over. Then all of a sudden Percy was on him, cupping his face gently and pulling the other boy towards him before swinging a leg over to straddle him. “This time I will make sure the message is clear,” Percy spoke in a hushed voice and his lips barely left Nico’s to speak as he worked his hands underneath Nico’s black bomber. How the guy could wear that thing all through summer was beyond Percy.

The kiss was so intense and sudden that Nico went still for a moment. When he got his will back though Percy was already slipping his jacket from his shoulders, his hands working their way down Nico’s arms until they found skin. The coat fell back behind Nico and his mind started to race.

Percy couldn’t believe what he was doing, he was touching Nico! Once he was rid of the jacket he was surprised how fast Nico’s arms shot around him, not even giving him the satisfaction of looking at the toned muscles that adorned Nico these days. He was glad to feel hands in his hair though, and he wondered how far Nico wanted to go. Cautiously Percy lifted the hem of Nico’s shirt and traced a finger over what felt like a scar on Nico’s abdomen. Nico quickly pulled his shirt down again, cutting off access to his six pack.

“I never knew you had your appendix out,” Percy moaned against Nico’s lips. “Is the scar ticklish?” but Nico slipped his tongue into Percy’s mouth before responding. He moaned against Nico’s lips, relishing in the fight that they were having with each other’s mouths. Without even meaning to his hands found Nico’s and moved for the boys wrists so he could pin Nico’s arms over his head.

To keep the upper hand Percy leaned Nico back onto the bed and pinned his arms up before the other boy knew what was happening. But when he broke the kiss and saw the boy underneath him, open and exposed, he stopped and looked again. Taking in all of Nico’s beauty, all of his perfect flaws, and all of his pain.

That seemed to have been when the blood returned to Nico’s brain because he instantly threw Percy off of him and made a grab for his coat to leave.

_Break_

Annabeth was ecstatic. Reyna and her had just finished the final planning stages for a temple for Artemis and neither of them could be happier. The temple had been Annabeth’s main design project for the past few days, and after talking to Hazel she had thrown all her time into completing it before she left to find the hunters. To Reyna the entire project had brought that much more life into Annabeth, and the final sketches and blueprints she had were amazing beyond belief.

“The hunters won’t be able to say no,” she said before kissing Annabeth and pulling her into a hug.

“Are you sure?” Annabeth asked nervously but buried her face into Reyna’s chest. She felt safe, and sheltered, and she loved the rosy scent that her girlfriend wore. Ever since Tartarus Annabeth loved to surround herself with fresh and flowery scents, the burning smell that had filled that pit still haunted her. “I want Thalia to like it,” she admitted.

“Thalia will love it,” Reyna told her confidently, “she would love anything you built.”

At that Annabeth blushed and she was thankful that Reyna couldn't see it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please like and comment if you did enjoy. Annabeth is going to go see Thalia in the next chapter so that should prove interesting. Also find out what set Nico off and Jason and Percy are finally going to have a heart to heart. Piper starts to work with Reyna on city planning and teaching, and Lou Ellen comes back to drive Nico insane; all one happy loving family. OOh and find out who will be rooming next door to Nico and Percy! Any guesses? Love you guys, the next chapter should be up shortly!  
> -Megara


	8. Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico has run away from Percy in an attempt to rid himself of all the stress that life was causing. Annabeth and Reyna meet with the hunters and Reyna spends a long time going over the details as Jason and Piper fight over something that Jason can't figure out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the latish update; was without internet for the weekend. However I am already started on the next update so yea! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, a lot of drama ensues but it was fun to write.

Chapter 8: Pain

 

Nico wasn’t sure who to go to, actually he knew who would be there for him but she was gone. She would never be there to tell him it was alright again and it was times like these that he thought about that and wondered, if he could hold onto this depression maybe he could let Percy go. Now though he knew it was never possible. He had dealt with two wars, his sister’s death, and been given the opportunity to have Percy completely gone but none of that changed the way he looked at Percy.

For the longest time Percy had been his lighthouse. No matter how dark the situation, the great hero had managed to brighten Nico’s life. It had never been enough though, the smiles and laughs that Percy had granted him only forced him to hide deeper inside himself. He had never admitted to anyone that he was so far gone that feeling anything was a blessing. That even just feeling pain saved him from spiraling out of control. 

All of it had started when Bianca had died. He remembered running away from Percy that night and losing track of his location as he ran from camp and monsters, the overwhelming feeling that he was going to die. He had managed to fight off most of the monsters but he was too lifeless to put much effort into defending himself towards the end.

Then one of his attackers had lashed out and cut his shoulder.

Adrenaline had coursed through his as his mind focused on the pain, and Nico blacked out in total bliss. He woke up the next day in a field, his arms a sticky bloody mess and his head finally clear. After patching himself up he left to find some sort of safety, even briefly considered going back to camp, but he found a cave that offered him something of his own.

Now he could feel his fingers graze the scar that started it all. After the war everyone had been so lost, and Jason had been impressed with how well Nico had been able to cope with all of it. Percy had closed himself off, Jason had worked to find respect, but Nico had just continued his bad habits. Scars littered his body and each one had a story, a history, a pain that he had tried to get rid of. But none of that would matter to people who saw them.

He had wanted so badly to tell someone. Jason? Piper? Leo? But none of them would have understood that it wasn’t about the pain, that it was about using pain to stay alive. That when it all had started he would just be reckless and find a monster to challenge him and inflict him with pain. Poison was curable so it didn’t matter what they cut him with in his mind, and yet as time went on he found it easier to kill anything that came after him. He couldn’t bring himself to just give in to his doom because Bianca would have made his eternal life a living hell. Even though he knew for a fact they would be in different parts of the underworld she would travel to him and curse him.

So when it got harder to find an opponent he had turned to himself. They were small at first, just enough to feel the sting. But then the sting faded away and it was the spiral of a drug addict, needing more to feel the high. And he had known that it was a problem, but he didn’t want to die.

That was what he hated the most. He hated life but he didn’t want to end it, at least not then. All the darkness around him and for some reason he was still an optimist. The thought made him laugh. Who would ever think the creepy goth kid was an optimist?

Looking around Nico realized he was at the edge of New Rome. He found himself not wanting to shadow travel away, Percy didn’t deserve that again, but he hadn’t paid attention to where he was going when he left their room. Now he was looking out at a forest, he was probably in the middle of it since he had lost sight of the city. So he let himself fall to the ground and gripped frantically for his wallet where he kept a razor blade. The metal shined at him and he gripped it tightly between his fingers while he thought of every time he relied on such a small blade to save him.

“Nico!” Percy’s voice rang out around him. The tone changing as it bounced around his head; the angered Percy when Nico had let Hades take him to the dungeons, the desperateness when he had called for Nico in Daedalus’ labyrinth, relief every time he had found Nico. That voice inflicted both pain and joy as he went to bring the blade across his arm.

That was when a hand grabbed his wrist and yanked it to the side. The blade was barely able to nick at his skin before it was sent across the forest floor and arms were wrapping Nico up to cradle him. He struggled to get free from the person trying to comfort him but their grip was like iron and he looked up to find a pair of large green eyes shining like they were about to fill with tears.

“Get away from me,” Nico growled, his walls going up as he realized that the voice hadn’t just been in his head. “Let me go Jackson.”

“No.”

Surprised Nico glared back at Percy. “What did you just say to me Jackson?”

“Stop using the last name di Angelo,” Percy warned him. “I am not going to let you hurt yourself you selfish prick!”

Now Nico was officially confused. He blinked wide eyed at Percy and withheld the urge to slap the other boy in the face. “What the fuck? Just let me GO!” They stared at each other for a moment before Percy stood up with Nico in his arms and dropped him on his back. Nico made an ‘oomph’ and glared at Percy harshly again before standing up and turning on his heel.

He started to run from Percy, not caring that he was probably going to end up in China with how chaotic his thought process was. Behind him though Percy whispered; “You said you wouldn’t leave.”

Nico stopped dead in his tracks, the shadows in front of him thickening and shaking with his frustration. He dug his nail into the small nick on his wrist to stay centered, “That wasn’t today, when I said that I wasn’t here… I was on the other side of the country so let it go.”

“Maybe you had the right idea,” Percy chuckled sadly and Nico turned to face him, “maybe never letting anyone in would keep me from feeling this way. Maybe being in physical pain is better than feeling like this…”

_Break_

Bouncing on her heels Annabeth was nervous to see Thalia. She remembered how protective the daughter of Zeus had been when they were younger and now Annabeth was older than Thalia now, at least physically, and she had no idea what she had to expect. The two of them talked off and on but it was difficult between the wars and hunter assignments to stay in constant contact.

“You sure look excited girly,” Clarisse was standing by Annabeth’s side awaiting the arrival of the hunters. “Excited to make your girlfriend proud?”

Cutting her grey eyes to the side to look at the taller girl Annabeth huffed; “Shut up Clarisse. You’re only here to show Chris that you don’t plan on joining them.”

Clarisse laughed and nudged Annabeth’s side; “Well he has nothing to worry about. Could you imagine me around a bunch of girls all the time? Besides they were a ton of white, not my color.” At that both of them started to laugh and Annabeth had to cover her mouth as she saw the hunters getting closer to them in their silver jackets and with their bows on their backs.

Thalia was leading them, her black hair still chopped short and she had her blue dye streaked into a few strands on the side of her head. The dye matched her striking blue eyes that were lined with black liner to extenuate her lashes and brightening her eyes. She was the only one without her bow and she looked as though she were glowing when she got closer to the girls waiting for them.

“Annie!” her stern face melted away to be replaced by a warm smile. She met Annie halfway to the entrance of the city and hugged her tightly; “it has been so long!”

Behind them Reyna coughed to announce her presence.

“Oh gosh,” steering Annabeth to the side by her hips, Thalia took a step closer and hardened her face for the leader of the Romans. “I am Thalia Grace, head of the hunters. I take it that you are Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano the Praetor of New Rome. We need to… discuss some things.”

Reyna glanced at Annabeth skeptically, only to find her girlfriend smiling brightly at Thalia and her so she refocused and nodded at the head of the hunters. “Please follow me into my temporary headquarters.”

Without even smiling Thalia followed Reyna who had Annabeth on her arm and Clarisse at her side. The hunters followed behind her and their eyes flitted from one building to the next as they watched Romans and Greeks work side by side to rebuild the city. None of them were sure how to handle this, the hunters were all a mix so they were used to working together but the scene before them was a radical shift in the order of things. A new shift was going to happen and the gods would soon have to form a new identity to escape their schizophrenia.

“Refrain from gawking ladies,” Thalia instructed as the approached a white tent with red flags outside of it. Reyna turned toward her and smiled.

“I hate to say this, but my current station can’t fit all of you so I must ask that you choose one girl to accompany you into my quarters.” Reyna smiled politely but Thalia scowled and looked to her comrades.

“Sandra,” Thalia called without breaking her gaze on the dark eyed Praetor. A small girl with soft brown hair and blue eyes made her way to Thalia’s right side.

A shock ran through Sandra’s spine as she looked to Reyna who smiled at her. The Praetor was void of all emotion but she still smiled and ushered them into the tent behind her.

Annabeth smiled and clutched her blueprints for the temple as the two hunters filed in before them into the tent. All of them moved to be around the desk Reyna had inside, Thalia and Sandra standing while Clarisse collapsed into one of the chairs and pulled out a knife to clean under her nails. Reyna took Annabeth’s free hand and brought her around the back of the desk so the two of them could view the others. It was crowded inside the small space but Reyna beamed as she brought Annabeth close to her. “I want to propose a new building in New Rome, a place where you may all feel welcome and safe. Annabeth has drawn up plans as a proposal for all of you.”

Her hands were shaking as she smoothed her plans over the wood surface of Reyna’s desk but Annabeth was excited to present her plans. Even Clarisse was leaning forward, the knife she had out now dangling in her hand, to look at what Annabeth had to show. “This is a Temple for Diana, Artemis,” she clarified and continued, “It will be located with the temples but it will provided a safe place for all of the hunters to stay if needed. Unlike the temple at Camp Half Blood this will have a private bath, prayer area, and a fountain for Iris messages. The building will be made of pure white marble and laced with moonstone to glorify the Goddess. Even the structures inside with be made of white marble and silver, moonstone will line areas so at night you won’t need indoor lighting aside from next to the beds, and the temple with have a ceiling enchanted so the stars will always be in view.”

Everyone in the room fell silent and stared down at the plans. Sandra was the first one to say anything; she looked up at Annabeth and blinked several times. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered and watched Annabeth blush bright red. The blush intensified as Reyna wrapped an arm around her waist.

“Isn’t it?” She beamed and looked at Annabeth and then the others. “It is the most beautiful building she has designed so far, and the others are tough to beat. It reflects her so well. I hope that you will consider it.”

Annabeth blushed even deeper as she looked at Thalia. “I really hope you take our offer to have the temple built Thal’s,” Thalia looked up when Annabeth used her nick name from so long ago. She remembered the large grey eyes that went from being filled with fear to hope. All the times that Annabeth had talked about wanting to be an architect and now she had redesigned Olympus and was getting ready to leave her mark elsewhere as well.

“I love the plans Annie,” she smiled when she saw an ear to ear grin on Annabeth’s face. She looked younger, innocent, as she gazed at Thalia. “Now about the deal to have the temple built. I understand that we get a safe place in New Rome, but what do you get Miss Ramirez- Arellano?”

Reyna smiled softly and Annabeth left her side. “We get the possible aid of hunters in times of crisis. Mostly this is for Diana, but of course we have taken the hunters into consideration.”

The two leaders held eye contact and Thalia nodded. “Well how about you and I talk privately about these matters? Sandra has proved that the temple is beautiful and I am sure the girls will agree, so now it is up to me to hash out the details.”

Reyna nodded and squeezed Annabeth’s hand before letting her go. As she passed Thalia Annabeth looked to her friend; “Let me know how everything goes,” she whispered and gripped Clarisse’s upper arm to drag her out.

“That was all I went in there for?” Clarisse protested and she was drug from the tent. “What was the point?!”

Sandra smiled and bowed her head to Thalia before taking her leave and exiting the tent.

“So what is this really about?” Reyna’s smile was gone and she sat down in her seat to look deep into Thalia’s eyes. “I believe you have very few questions regarding the conditions on the temple, after all Annabeth would never partake in something that wasn’t fair for you. So what do you actually want to talk about?”

Thalia walked over to the opposite side of Reyna’s desk and placed her hands on the smooth surface just under the plans Annabeth had drawn. “At least you aren’t stupid,” she narrowed her eyes at the Praetor, “I heard that you have been dating Annabeth. So I decided to come by and talk to you, just a bit face to face.” Reyna’s eyes widened and Thalia smirked.

“She is not just a brilliant girl,” Thalia started, “she is the most brilliant girl I will ever meet, and that is in an immortal life. But she is easy to convince in the ways of love,” she knew her eyes had darkened but even now the thought of Luke made her hurt. “She has already once been pulled by someone who claimed to love her and I will not watch someone do that to her again. Annabeth deserves the best there is, and I had thought Percy could be that for her. Of course I respect her decisions but I need you to know that if you hurt her,” she hadn’t realized it but she had leaned closer into Reyna’s space and was maybe and inch away from her nose now, breathing hard from her outburst and seeing the determination in Reyna’s eyes that reflected her own harsh gaze back at her. “If you hurt her Reyna,” she warned as she caught her breath, “I will not hesitate to kill you. I will not hesitate to beat you in front of your entire legion and shame you into a hole for the rest of your pathetic life because right now you have the power to heal or hurt my best friend. I died for her once, so don’t think that I won’t follow through on this promise.” All that Thalia could think of was how betrayed Annabeth had been when Luke turned his back on her for the titans. Ever since then Thalia was determined to never let another one of her friends get hurt, and it didn’t matter what she had to do to protect them.

But Reyna wasn’t going to be intimidated that easily. She stood up calmly and walked around her desk, Thalia followed her with her eyes and was actually taken back when Reyna gripped her by the shirt and pulled her close. Reyna was taller than Thalia, so she gazed down her nose at the head of the hunters. “I do not take kindly to threats,” her voice was dark and Thalia felt her heart skip a beat as they locked gazes, “because I respect what you are saying, and because you are Annabeth’s friend, I won’t strike you down now. But know that if you ever try to fight me you won’t win. I love Annabeth, I will fight for her and protect her, but I am a daughter of Bellona and you will not be threatening me as you just did.”

Both of them were breathing heavily and Thalia couldn’t help but fill the air around them with electricity. Reyna didn’t seem bothered by this and she smiled at Thalia before letting her go. “I am glad we have an understanding here,” she laughed and moved back around her desk, ignoring the hammering of her heart as she handed Thalia a folder and their fingers brushed.

“Actually,” Thalia grinned and looked over the top of the folder to smile at Reyna; “I have one more thing to ask of you. It involves Annabeth.”

_Break_

How Jason and Piper had ended up in this fight he didn’t know. All he knew was that it was dangerous to fight with Piper because he could literally end up doing anything. On the one hand he could end up hurting her, on the other he could end up in a tutu on one of the construction sites. Neither of those were something he wanted to experience again.

“What is this about?” he asked desperately as she stomped up the stairs away from him. “All I said was that Reyna and Annabeth seemed really happy after the hunters left! So what the hell did I do?”

Piper was fuming, her chest felt empty and she her stomach was flipping with every step she took. “I told you that you didn’t do anything Jason!”

He paused and looked at her; “Then why did you start yelling at me? I mean really Piper, what the fuck?!”

“Just shut up Jason!” Piper fumed at him and spun to face him. He was standing straight as a board, she didn’t even realize she had charm spoken until she saw his tightly closed mouth. “Gods Jason,” she moved toward him and stroked his face, “I am so sorry I did that. There is just… So much is going on right now that I don’t know…”

Jason’s body shook as he was released from Piper’s charm and he leaned into her touch. “It’s okay Pipes,” lifting his hand he ran his fingers through her hair, “Everything is alright. We can do anything as long as we work together.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment to let me know how you guys like the story :) the next update will come soon, maybe Jason finally finds out what has been going on with Piper? Not sure yet so keep your eyes open.  
> -Megara


	9. Numb the Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Percy's confrontation leaves them both worse for wear as Annabeth and Thalia get caught up in the middle of it. What did Nico do after Percy told him that it was worthless? After Percy found out Nico's secret, how can he deal with all of that? And when Annabeth is so happy to be with Reyna, is this going to effect her as well? Bad summery, short chapter, but I needed to get this out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it is a short chapter, and I am warning that it could be triggering. Please do not think that I, in any way, condone the act of self harm. Abusing ones body is a very difficult thing to understand, and anyone who self harms or knows someone who does needs to understand that it is different for everyone. Please also, if anyone ever needs to talk to someone outside their personal life I am here as an option. It is good knowing that your not alone, even if you feel like you are. Comment and kudos are always appreciated.

Chapter 9: Numb the Pain

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Reyna asked as she helped Annabeth pack her bags. Thalia had asked Reyna to spare Annabeth for a week in a show of good faith for a quest that needed more than just the hunters. Apparently even their eclectic group wasn’t as decisive as Annabeth was when it came to finding hidden items. At first Annabeth had insisted that she couldn’t leave Reyna’s side; her reasoning’s jumping from the renovations to her new relationship to school. Reyna told them that they were all bogus. Malcom volunteered for watching over the construction for a week, he had school but all the plans for the next week were done and he was planning on being on site anyways. Reyna had assured her that school was the last thing she needed to worry about with her grades, next to their relationship because it was still early and they would IM each other every night.

Eventually she accepted in order to get the okay for the temple. Not to mention that she was excited to spend an entire week with Thalia after so many years of nearly no contact. She just didn’t want Reyna to feel threatened.

“It is fine,” Reyna smiled over at Annabeth and pulled her into a soft yet passionate kiss. “I can be without you for a week,” another kiss and Reyna heard Annabeth moan, “as long as you aren’t gone any longer than that. If you are I may just have to come find you,” pushing Annabeth back onto the mattress Reyna crouched over her girlfriend, “after all,” she purred, “I always go after what I want.”

Annabeth smiled up at her girlfriend and chuckled before pulling the dark haired girl toward her face, kissing her once and then laying small kisses along her jawline and neck. Earning herself a low moan she let her eyes find Reyna’s, the half lidded dark orbs made her draw away and smirk. “Good thing you always go after what you want,” she joked and kissed Reyna again before rolling out from underneath the other girl. Reyna slapped her on the ass as she scurried away and ran into Reyna’s bathroom to grab the girl’s body wash.

“What are you doing with that?” Reyna raised an eyebrow as Annabeth shoved the only bottle of body wash Reyna had into her own bag and zip the compartment closed. “I was still planning on showering while you were gone.”

All Annabeth did was offer her a seductive smile as she pulled out a bottle of body wash from her bag as well, pushing it into her cleavage and leaning up to whisper; “This way you never forget what I smell like.”

Reyna’s blush deepened but she looked down at Annabeth with lust in her eyes and gripped the girl by the wrist and flung her towards the bed where she pinned her down. It was easy to see hunger in Annabeth’s eyes as the two of them stared into each other on the bed. Reyna smirked though and flipped off, away from her prey and chuckled. “I guess I will see you in a week then?”

A loud groan escaped Annabeth’s lips but she just grabbed her bag and rolled her eyes in Reyna’s direction before pecking her on the cheek and hurrying out the door to find Thalia.

_Break_

Nico wasn’t sure when his shadows took his back to the room he was sharing with Percy, but he was grateful that the son of Poseidon wasn’t there. Yet. He needed to pick up his things quickly before Percy found his way back and managed to convince him to stay.

After what Nico had heard him say he knew that he was getting too invested, too attached, again. He couldn’t end up back in the Percy vortex again, the last time he barely managed to escape with his life. The only thing he could do now was what he did best; run. And he had done just that, leaving Percy alone in the forest with a final goodbye. This time he needed it to be true though. He needed to never go back to the only person he feared he would ever love.

Halfway through packing up his clothes he felt something grow inside of him though, a deep and dark feeling of doom as though something in his life were going very wrong. He ran to the joined bathrooms and heaved what he had in his stomach out into the toilet and collapsed on the tile. With wide eyes he realized what he was feeling and moved to stand up quickly, only to see the world around him spin and a figure make its way towards him in a flash of electric blue and then another in blonde. The blonde was screaming something at him, something that made the blue figure strike the blonde one and then the world was filled with quiet as his vision came to. Above him he saw a seething Annabeth, great she was _just_ the person that he wanted to see, and a very worried yet sternly angry Thalia.

“Why is it I only see you when everything is shit?” he asked her with all the sarcasm he had left, and that made him sound weak. Thalia didn’t even smile but Annabeth looked at him as though he had done something so wrong he deserved to die for it.

In all honesty he probably had.

Thalia gripped him rather roughly by the arm and heaved him up, giving him something to keep from falling to the floor again as his surroundings tried to tilt.

“What happened to him?” Nico asked with as much urgency as he could, feeling the grip Thalia had on his arm start to tear at the scabs that had formed there. He was thankful for the long sleeves, but even more so for the fact that the pain brought him back to earth. It made him suddenly remember that there was more to life than the hollow feeling he had been infected with in his chest.

The look Thalia gave him made his head want to spin again, and if he hadn’t been on an adrenaline fueled pain high he just might have fainted. He took his arm away from her before the blood could soak through enough and coat her hand, but there little group was joined by the Stolls before he got a chance to be grateful. They had their hands full of supplies, possibly for their next prank, and they stared at Nico’s pale form in horror. That horror was only amplified when Thalia looked him dead in the eye; “I guess you two will have plenty of time to talk about it in the infirmary.”

_Break_

Percy collapsed in utter defeat after Nico disappeared. Was it really to late for him to do anything to win back Nico? Had he lost the boy for good now? It certainly hadn’t seemed like it back in their room… Then again, Nico had proven how well he could lie to everyone’s face.

How many years had Nico been cutting? His body like a blank map someone had tried to use to find treasure with. Every spot they went to slashed out as being empty. Nico had treated his body worse than Percy could imagine, and all that made him do was think of all the abuse that he had taken from Gabe as a kid. It wasn’t true at all, but some part of Percy felt like Nico was mocking him. Mocking everyone who had ever been hurt by hurting himself as if to say; _See this helps._

But Nico seemed so much better. He had friends and attitude and was outgoing now. All of that made Percy really think about his time with Gabe. The physical abuse had never been the most painful thing about living with that man… It was feeling helpless that did it. Watching his mother fall apart trying to put up with him, knowing that there was nothing he could do, being told over and over again that there was nothing he could do. Gabe’s words had hit Percy harder than either of his fists could. The fists had shown him that there was something else. Something besides helplessness and emptiness. So why did what Nico was doing hurt so badly? What could make him feel different about what the other boy was doing?

Light blinked off of the ground and Percy rushed over to it. He caught the sight of the blade that Nico had dropped when Percy tackled him. The edge was so sharp it hadn’t even gotten a chance to be painted with Nico’s blood, it had been on the ground before the wound had even started to bleed.

He gripped the small, shining piece of metal, and he wondered what Nico was doing right then. Where Nico was, how much pain he was putting himself through… The blade was going to be the only thing that he had of Nico and he examined it closely. After what happened today Nico would never come back… He was probably cutting all his ties now thinking that Percy would tell everyone what he had done. Was doing.

There was no real conscious decision as he looked over the small piece of silver in his hands. Nico was one person that Percy couldn’t figure out. He didn’t know why there was such a strong desire within him to pursue a boy he could never have, but he had to know…

Had to know if the blade could be like the fists.

Could it drown out all his other thoughts?

But his wrists had shrunk so much that there was little flesh to deal with. His hands shook from lack of nutrition and he didn’t know until it was too late that the blade was not as good as the fists. It was better.

Around him the world started to go dark at the edges. Dark like Nico. And he wanted nothing more than to be surrounded by Nico.

Even the sound of Annabeth screaming couldn't pull him away from the shadows that crept up to consume him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *SELF HARM* is a way of coping with situations outside of our grasp and can be very dangerous. Please know that if someone you know is self harming, or you yourself are, that there are people out there that care about you and it may be the people you least expect. I love all of my readers and hope that they are happy :)   
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	10. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this has a lot of sad moments, but I promise that the story will have a happy ending. Everyone just has to deal with Percy's incident as best they can. Nico realizes something important in this chapter as well, and Thalia reveals her biggest fear as she watches Percy in the recovery room. Calypso and Leo return and everyone just needs a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes this is a sad chapter, and there was a huge delay in getting it up. But it was hard to write even if it flowed through my mind, it just is very sad. Not even the Stolls were able to fully cheer it up. I promise on my life though that it was important to do because it only gets brighter from here :)  
> Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 10

 

Jason and Piper got to the hospital in record time, not including the people who had brought Nico and Percy in and were able to use crazy transportation methods. Nico was sitting in a chair with Thalia glaring down at him like any moment a bolt of lightning would shoot from here electric blue eyes and vaporize him.

“Thalia!” Jason ran towards her and threw his arms around his sister. She barely offered up a chuckle as she hugged him back. “When you said to meet you at the hospital I thought you were hurt!”

She laughed at that and pulled away from him to look at his face. As always she was amazed at how mature he had gotten, she would never grace him with the same sight. “I am fine,” and then her face darkened as she thought of one of her best friends just a sheet pull away from her, laying in bed unconscious as medics tried to save him. “Percy,” she whispered and then glared back at Nico, “Percy is hurt… I don’t know if…” her glare at Nico started to fade as her wall began to crumble and Nico started to panic. Since they had gotten there Thalia hadn’t told him anything. But he knew that Percy was in trouble. “He was so pale,” at that a sob escaped her and she crumbled to her side against Annabeth.

Annabeth gripped Thalia as tightly as she could and moved her toward a chair beside Nico. She instantly lashed out at the boy and moved back towards Annabeth, gripping her shoulders to keep from doing anything stupid.

“What is going on here?” Piper asked, confused as she looked between Thalia and Nico, but Jason had no idea what to tell her. He was still in shock about what she said about Percy… What had happened?

“We found Percy in the forest,” Annabeth had turned emotionless when she spoke, a new talent that she had been cursed with from Tartarus. “Five inches long, two inches deep. It doesn’t look good,” gods she was starting to sound like a robot, “two pints gone when we got to him.”

As he tried to grasp what Annabeth was saying, and trying to make sense of it, Jason turned to Nico. “So why is my sister mad at you?”

“Percy was sobbing his name before he passed out.” Annabeth supplied to make up for Nico’s silence.

“And how does that make this all his fault?” Jason crossed his arms over his broad chest and looked at the group before him like a teacher of preschoolers.

The shame of knowing, from what Annabeth had stated, that it was in fact his fault was eating away at Nico. He didn’t even know he had spoken until the rest of them were looking at him. Thalia glared towards him, and he winced as he thought that a bolt of lightning wouldn’t feel too great right now, but it would feel better than this hallowed out shell feeling. “Tell me why one of my best, no,” Thalia corrected herself, “one of my _only_ friends was sobbing your name in the middle of the forests in a pool of his own blood.”

An image started to form in Nico’s mind and he just couldn’t take it. He stood up abruptly and yanked back the curtain to Percy’s bed, where a number of medics were running around trying to frantically help Percy by giving him more blood. “We were in a fight,” he said helplessly to the group behind him before looking at one of the medics and stating in complete seriousness; “You don’t know his blood type but I am O-, just give him what he needs.” The medic eyed Nico cautiously, just like everyone else who looked at him, but Nico just rolled his eyes and handed him the small medical card that Will had made for him. _So I will know it’s you when you wind up dead on the streets._ The words rang in his ears when he remembered all the desperate attempts to keep him at camp and the one that finally did. Nico wasn’t even sure why he still had the stupid card, but he was thankful for it.

Without even a vocal confirmation the team set about hooking Nico up to get Percy some blood, and fast. Thankfully Nico didn’t have many cuts on his forearms, he had tried to stick to areas he could cover, but even if they did notice any of them there was a more pressing matter at hand. One of the medics drew the curtain closed to block off the rest of the group, and Nico could hear Thalia throwing a fit but he didn’t care. Percy was curled into a ball on the bed beside him, and he could see the crude stitches they had given him while the ambrosia took effect. It was a shame that the food of the gods couldn’t replenish you blood supply.

He sat back and let the dull haze of minor blood loss pull him under as they took what they needed. They could have drained him dry and Nico wouldn’t have cared. All he wanted was for Percy to look happy and healthy again. Why did Tartarus have to affect them the way it had? Hadn’t they suffered enough?

If Bianca have stayed in the Underworld then she could have helped him get through that hell. But he couldn’t blame her for wanting another chance. Everyone wanted a second chance. Even Nico had thought about taking water from the Lethe to try anew, but he knew that neither Bianca nor Hazel would approve, and he had a responsibility to look out for Hazel since he brought her back.

Time went by like water in a river, Nico hadn’t paid attention to it but one of the medics grasped his shoulder and told him that Percy was going to be fine. Once again Nico had stuck around to hear that the sea prince would be okay, that he had nothing to worry about. He looked over to Percy and, sure enough, some color had returned to his skin and his breathing had evened out. It wasn’t as though he looked one hundred percent, but his looked a little less like death. Nico leaned forward after they took the needle out of his arm, he could see the questioning looks that they gave him but he knew that they wouldn’t ask him anything as he pulled down his shirt sleeve.

Percy’s hair slipped through his fingers and he wondered just when he had let himself start touching Percy… Was his love for Percy growing even more than he had thought possible? The thought scared him, falling harder… But he loved the fall, loved this boy, and was determined to find a way to make this up to him.

“Nico,” Percy whispered into his pillow, and just like Annabeth had said once before, the boy was drooling in his sleep. “I- I can’t stand to see you go…”

The words made him freeze and Nico pulled his hand away from Percy’s head to look at the other boy in shock.

That was when the others were let back and they prepared to move Percy from the emergency area to a recovery room where they would have more privacy. Thalia had some eyeliner running down one cheek, and she gripped Percy’s hand, the one on the good arm, and sniffled as she looked at him. “You are in so much dam trouble when you wake up,” she laughed but there was more relief than joy in it as she looked at her best friend. Thalia knew, had known, yet still dreaded the fact that she was going to live to see all of her friends die. She would outlive everyone in that room including her brother, and she would kill before she let any of them go before old age claimed them. When she had joined the hunters they had given her a family, a life outside of the prophecies. But the power had made some girls jealous, and no matter how convincing she was she may have gained their respect but she would never have actual friends there. Only sisters.

Annabeth dutifully checked all of Percy’s vitals and his IV, never letting a single emotion pass her face as she did so. She would never cry again as far as any of them could tell…

Jason was clenching his fists at his side, anger building up in him and making the air fill with static. “Why is everyone so damaged now?” his voice was harsh but low. “I can’t even look at Piper without filling with fear, Percy can’t eat and now he is hurting himself, Annabeth wont even look at her best friend… Damn it all!” he snapped and punched the nearest wall before turning to Nico, “how is it you’re the only one of us that has moved past it?!”

Once his mind caught up with his actions Jason bit down on his fist and tried to keep any tears from spilling as he looked at Nico. Choking back a sob he backed up and tried to say he was sorry before running down the hall.

“Guess who was able to break into the vending machines,” one of the Stoll brothers peaked around the corner just after Jason fled the scene. His wiggling eyebrows stopped once he saw Percy; “so that’s what happened to him…”

_Break_

Halfway through what used to be the city Jason fell to his knees and gave up running. Running was something that Nico was good at, not Jason. He punched the ground as hard as he could, pulling back to see his fist coated in blood with chips of glass lodged into the flesh. That was when Reyna came up behind him, not moving to kneel down and comfort him or trying anything that most people would do, she just stared at him from behind until she decided that he should know she was there.

“You have a life to live Roman,” she stepped closer to him when he turned to face her, “best to live it while it is here.” And then, before she would allow herself to do something stupid, she strode away. Leaving the torn up son of Jupiter stare at her retreating form.

Why was it that pointing out the obvious made him feel better?

He looked out at the city, what was left and what was being built, and for the first time in weeks he realized that he was home. The people needed him. And he needed to fix this place so it would be there for him, for him to lead this city.

_Break_

Connor glared at Travis from where he was sitting. “You just had to open your mouth first and eyes second, didn’t you?” he growled under his breath just to get a death glare from Clarisse.

After Travis’s insensitivity towards Percy, he and Conner had both been put in timeout by Piper. Clarisse had been wrangled into babysitting them and was less than pleased with the situation, having only managed to calm down by confiscating their stolen goodies. She was munching through a bag of chocolate chip cookies when she decided to lecture them; “If you would take in your surroundings once in a while some of the things you do could be seen as nice,” with a quick wipe of her mouth she continued, “I mean I know that Thalia would be having a hay day chowing down on these sweets right now. She is an emotional eater, but you had to go and look like idiots so I had to come watch you.”

“You could let us give the food to them still, but you ate most of it.” Travis pointed out.

“And you ate all the good chocolaty stuff first,” Conner admitted, unable to help himself.

Clarisse glared at both of them; “Yea well it’s the least the little charm speaker can give me after calling me down here,” she finished off the bag of chips and tossed the crumpled up bag into the trash can, bouncing it on the side.

“We really didn’t mean to be rude,” Travis grumbled as he looked at the floor. Even for them the time didn’t feel happy or like there were jokes to be played.

It felt, questioning. Why would Percy, of all people, have tried to kill himself? Sure it probably hadn’t been on purpose. The doctor said that the blade was wicked sharp and Percy probably wasn’t expecting how easy it would go through his flesh… But why had he been putting it to his arm in the first place?

The door to the room they had moved Percy into opened. All three of them looked just to see Hazel and Frank rushing through it before it closed, they had been so focused that the Stolls doubted they were even noticed. A while later they could hear Hazel crying.

When Leo showed up they were definitely noticed. The ADHD riddled boy was pacing outside the room for so long that Conner thought he was going to wear a path in the tile, but no one was about to say anything about it.

Leo saw the Stolls sitting outside the room when he had come up. He was fighting internally about whether or not to go into the small room. It didn’t seem appealing, a cramped space with someone laying on a bed, but he knew that it was something friends and family did. He thought about Calypso, who had seemed flustered at the idea of seeing Percy again but had promised to be there as soon as she could to look him over. Will may be a good healer, but Calypso had a few years on him. Plus, being immortal had some perks, like magical perks. Leo knew that she would be able to do more for Percy than he ever could.

“Wanna sit out here?” Travis called out to him. They hadn’t spoken much since Leo got back, but they had become okay friends before the war so Leo nodded and sat by Conner. The only real physical difference between the two was that Conner had a small scar on his eyebrow that made the hairs split ever so slightly. But it was enough for Leo to notice. He also noticed that Conner seemed to be the more levelheaded of the two, but that didn’t count for much.

“Have you seen Percy?” Leo asked shyly and Travis nodded his head. “Was he doing… Okay?”

There was an odd silence but finally Travis just shook his head. “He looked pretty broken…”

It felt like more needed to be said but no one wanted to say anything. When Conner went to continue the conversation Clarisse knew that it would only hurt more. “You two are in timeout,” she looked at them both sternly, “no more talking or time starts over.”

All of them shared weak smiles until Leo spotted Calypso running down the hall with her hair in a windswept mess and dirt covering her hands. Leo loved that whenever she was in a mood she would switch from helping him with his machines to plunging her hands into the dirt. He needed her to connect him to the organic, and he knew that she would never let a little mess stand in her way from helping anything. She still had smudges of soot on her cheek from cleaning up the areas where the city had decided to start gardening and farming, but he knew she didn’t care. The dark smudge set off her worried hazel eyes and he quickly moved toward her without thinking about it.

“Is he in there?” she asked frantically, her bare feet cold on the hard tiles beneath. “Why aren’t you with him?”

But there was no need to answer that, she knew him so she just gave him a soft smile before kissing his cheek. Without another word she opened the door to see her old love.

_Break_

Hazel had thought for sure that it was going to be Nico who was lying in the hospital bed, and it hurt her to think she was slightly relieved and happy when she saw him sitting up in his own chair. Then she saw Percy and instantly a tear fell from her cheek; both for her friend and for her brother. She knew that it must be painful for Nico to see Percy like that, it wasn’t hard to see that he still loved Percy, but for some reason she couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty. It had been her to tell Percy to go after Nico this time, and she had threatened him because she was sure that Nico was going to get hurt.

Apparently the opposite had been true.

“Now maybe you know how he has felt all these years,” she wanted to comfort her brother but the words were out before she could stop them. For so long it had been her taking Nico’s side, comforting Nico, fearing for Nico, and now she had sent someone to be hurt by Nico. Her eyes were filled to the brim with tears and the tension in the room rose as everyone looked at Nico, his eyes a broken pit of black staring into her pained golden orbs.

Frank was the one to put a hand on her shoulder and give her the look that told her she had gone too far. Everyone may have been thinking what she said, but just looking at Nico was enough to tell anyone that it was crossing a line. Nico was just as broken as Percy, and he had already been screamed at by Jason so he was even more on edge. Hazel felt a sob rip through her throat and watched Nico get up from his chair.

She expected him to be angry, to glare at her or give her his disappointed look that was far worse, then she knew he would run away. Knowing that it was coming she shut her eyes. As much as disappointing him hurt her it was nothing compared to him slipping into the shadows to leave. After he had been captured by the giants in the war she had sworn to herself that she would never watch him travel away from her again. If she did there would be nothing to stop her from reaching out and grabbing his arm so he would have to take her with him…

But Nico didn’t leave. Instead he wrapped his arms around Hazel. He held her tightly and let her cry into his shoulder as Bianca had done for him so many times. The dampness of her tears made him feel something in a way that he knew he wanted to cut away the memory with a blade. That thought made him clench his teeth and glance over at Percy, the damn idiot was still recovering and wouldn’t wake up for a few hours, but Nico wanted to slap him and ask what he thought he was doing. Hazel clutched to his shirt and cried more, Frank rubbing her back to try and calm her.

“You can’t make me watch you go,” Hazel forced the words out, knowing that if he left after doing something like this that she would never fully heal from the wound he would open.

Stilling for a moment Nico wondered if he really would be hurting people if he left now… There was no doubting that he had made friends here, his sister even had put up with it all before, but what did having friends mean? Did he finally have a home now? He had always thought that a home was a place where he would be accepted by everyone, and he knew that New Rome didn’t accept him fully, but maybe it was being loved but a handful that really made him want to stay…

The door opened at that moment. Not a dramatic loud opening, but it opened and everyone was drawn to see who had shown up next. A girl with cinnamon hair and dirt under her nail, black bottom feet from running out in the soot barefoot and wearing an old sundress stood in the doorway. She caught sight of Percy on the bed and made a beeline for him.

Like Annabeth she checked his vital, but there was no connection cut look in her eyes as she did so, the hazel color was filled with something akin to heartache and love as they flitted back to his face with everything she did. Finally she looked at everyone in the room, “He will be waking up soon. I think we should leave him with who he wants to see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, lots of sad. Who do you guys think Calypso will want to stay behind in the room? And will her and Leo have a happy, long term relationship? I am interested to hear you guesses as to what will happen next, what you may want to happen next. Comments are adored and please let me know what you think of the story, as well as kudos if you enjoyed it.  
> Loves  
> Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	11. Overwhelmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy wants to wake up to someone, and when a pair of large broken eyes is what he sees he can't help but regret everything he has just done. Especially when the person runs from the room with tears in their eyes and Percy knows he has to try and fix what he has created. No one can convince Percy that he needs to heal himself instead of worry about everyone else, but Nico knows that the two of them need to talk after what he found out about Ogygia...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved all the feedback from the last chapter! And I hope that this chapter sheds some hope on any possible relationship that Percy and Nico may have. Also I hope the character development for Thalia and the others is going well, I just love the drama writing and hope you all enjoy it.   
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 11: Overwhelmed 

The room was eerily silent for a brief moment before everyone started talking at once.

“You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m leaving not going to be here when he wakes up!” Thalia was at her feet and yelling at Calypso in the softest voice she could manage.

Hazel kept muttering a mantra of, “It’s all my fault,” that no one could understand but she had detangled herself from Nico, leaving only one hand to clutch desperately to the front of his shirt as she stared at Percy’s body lying on the bed before her. Frank was the only one to nod calmly as he took his leave, only stopping to kiss the top of Hazel’s head briefly.

“I didn’t say that you were the one who had to go,” Calypso spoke calmly and met Thalia’s eyes, “but do you think that you are who he wants to see?”

“He wants to see Nico,” Annabeth spoke up and she looked at everyone in the room with her thoughtful expression. “Obviously that is who it is since he keeps saying Nico’s name in his sleep,” without even rolling her eyes Annabeth turned to leave. She glanced over the machines that the medics had set up to monitor his condition and then she stepped closer to the door.

“So you’re just going to hide behind the numbers again?” Everyone turned to see Piper standing there, her fists clenched at her sides and her voice shaking just slightly. Annabeth turned to look at her but Piper refused to meet her gaze. “You know what, just forget it,” sighing Piper turned away from the blonde girl that had been her role model when she first showed up to camp. “Percy and you can’t even look and see each other anymore anyways, otherwise you would have known he was this bad. Go and bury yourself in a book.”

Thalia looked back and forth between the two girls, but couldn’t bring herself to blame Piper as she watched Annabeth turn and leave. She hadn’t even tried to fight the comments, normally she would argue and take on anyone that said anything against her with ferocity. Normally she would also be by Percy’s side as well though… Thalia was watching her friends come apart right in front of her, and she hadn’t been the first one to even call them out on their shit.

How could she lose them when they were the only people left for her to love?

“He needs to see me,” Thalia spoke up, “I don’t care if he doesn’t want to, if I’m not here for him then I will always know that I have lost this last piece of my life, and I can’t let that happen. Too many people have gone already.” She gazed sadly at where Annabeth had left them and Calypso understood. There was no denying that Calypso understood what it was like to outlive everyone and eventually end up alone.

“Well I don’t think that you are going to be able to get Hazel away from him…” Nico tried to pry his sister’s fingers from his shirt but they were clamped as tightly as they could be.

Rolling her eyes Piper reached out to Hazel and grabbed the girl by the shoulders, “Come on,” when Hazel didn’t respond she sighed, gripped Hazel’s hand to tear it from Nico’s shirt, and steered the girl by her shoulders towards the door.

“When the hell did you get to violent?” Nico called after her and reached out to defend Hazel but was stopped in his tracks when Piper glared at him.

“I’m a demigod Nico,” she growled, fed up with everyone treating her like she couldn’t take care of herself, “not a fucking princess. I don’t think it is healthy for Hazel to be here anyways.” After yanking the door open Piper slammed it shut as a barrier between her and the ghost king. She huffed, coming down from her adrenaline rush, and the realization that she had just not only had possibly hurt Hazel but yelled at Nico and slammed a door in his face hit her. Hades was going to make sure she paid for that little mental snap.

Nico fumed at the door, “Who the hell does she think she is?!” he moved as though to storm off but a voice stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Nico-,” Percy’s voice was soft and he stirred in his bed. Nico couldn’t move when he heard his name, he didn’t dare turn to see what was happening, but Percy’s words from before stopped him from leaving.

_“I can’t stand to see you go.”_

Thankfully Thalia was there, she knelt by Percy’s side and stroked the side of his face. “Percy,” her voice was so soft that it would have been a miracle for Percy to have heard her.

He didn’t wake up but Percy could feel someone’s presence near him. His hand was reaching out before he knew it and he felt the tip of his finger touch someone’s mouth, trailing to the side he found a lip ring. Didn’t Nico have a lip ring? The thought of Nico even possibly being by his side forced him awake and he locked eyes with Thalia. She caught his look of disappointment but focused on the fact that he had woken up. He wasn’t going to die!

“I guess it was foolish to hope,” Percy sounded so broken that Thalia couldn’t even force out a sarcastic comment on how loved she felt.

Instead tears streamed down her face and she pulled her friend in for a life endangering hug. “You dumb ass,” she sobbed into his hair. “You lovable yet insufferable dumb ass! What the hell were you doing?!” By the time she pulled back Percy’s eyes were wide open. He hadn’t looked around the room yet, and Nico was still frozen in place out of view, listening to the love of his life and the daughter of Zeus reunite.

A chuckle broke past Percy’s lips as he took in Thalia. “It’s good to see you too Thals.”

“I wish I could say the same,” Thalia took in Percy’s worried look and narrowed her eyes at him. “Percy don’t you dare worry about me! The only thing wrong here is that you almost died today! Why couldn’t you come to me? Why couldn’t you go to Annabeth or someone to talk? Aren’t we your friends, don’t you trust us?” She was sobbing now and she knew that her crying wasn’t helping because as always Percy tried to comfort her. This wasn’t the time for him to focus on her though, he needed to get better himself.

“Thals,” Percy reached out and let her grip his hand, “I didn’t want to worry you,” he said honestly, “And I don’t think talking to Annabeth would have helped all that much… She would just try and get me to see someone else, someone professional. And you,” he could see how hurt she looked and wished that he could numb all of her pain, “you can’t handle the matters of my heart. I couldn’t burden you with those when you are dedicated to Artemis.”

“I can still help you,” she wiped her tears away, “I can be there through your heartache Percy,” she tightened her grip on his hand and he thought she was going to break it. “Your heartbreak is something I should have talked to you about; I knew I should have messaged you after I found out about the breakup.”

Another small laugh escaped Percy but it sounded sad this time. “Annabeth and I broke up because both of us wanted to,” by this point Nico had turned and was watching Percy, seeing only his back as he was turned slightly to talk to Thalia, “I love her, but I couldn’t be with her.” Nico started to move back towards the shadows as he felt his heart weaken hearing this. He shouldn’t be hearing such a personal moment… “Not when I’m in love with someone else.”

Once the words left his lips he caught Thalia’s eyes fill with disbelief and flick upward, looking at something. Then a crash filled the room with noise and Percy flipped in bed, feeling the stitches in his arm protest as he tried to use it. He realized they weren’t alone…

“I’m sorry,” Calypso’s voice sounded melodic and she crouched to pick up the medical tools she had knocked off the rolling table in Percy’s room. “You know me,” she laughed, “I’m such a klutz.”

When Percy saw her his eyes widened. Calypso had been his first real love, his first close friend that wasn’t involved in the wars, the first person to love him… And he had left her and cursed her…

“Calypso?”

“Hello again Percy,” she smiled softly and stepped closer to him. “Did you miss me?”

Percy turned bright red and Nico was instantly uncomfortable. What did Calypso and Percy have? When had they met?

Percy coughed, still oblivious to the barely visible shadow of Nico that was only half there since he was sinking into the shadows. “I am so sorry Calypso,” he reached out towards her but Nico could see her hesitate before taking his hand, bending over so she could hug him.

“I am more so,” she whispered. After hearing from Leo that Percy had fallen into Tartarus she knew that he had gotten her curse. “I shouldn’t have made you take on my emotions… It was wrong of me to curse you…”

No,” Percy pushed her back, “I needed to know. I should have been there for you, freed you, but I-,”

“You had someone else,” she smiled sadly. “I remember you left so you wouldn’t have to burden someone else with your prophecy… Always persistent to take one the world yourself, never letting the people you care about bear any burdens. I hope whoever they were knows how much you love them. And I hope that you figured out what was going on with you and Annabeth.”

Nico was confused from what he heard. Had Percy ended up on Calypso’s island? And if he had, did Calypso mean to say that Percy hadn’t understood what was going on with Annabeth and him that he hadn’t left for her he had left for someone else?

“Umm,” Percy thought back to that time spent on the island. He had thought about Annabeth, sure. Even Rachel had popped up in his mind, before she turned into a virgin for life Oracle. But more than anything he had thought about Nico while he was there. If it hadn’t been for Nico, Percy would have stayed. At the time he wasn’t sure if it had been romantic emotions or not, he was confused enough with the girls to think about a young boy, but he had left the island to make sure Nico wouldn’t have to be the one to fill the prophecy. At the time Nico had only been eleven years old, and he was so hurt. “I never realized you caught on to that…”

Calypso could see Nico out of the corner of her eye, she had a feeling that it was Nico that had taken Percy from her. “You were so young Percy,” her voice was so much more knowledgeable than it should have been, “not even sixteen and you think that I was certain you left me for Annabeth? I had my suspicions of course, but if that had been true you wouldn’t have gone. You would have stayed with me because you never talked about how much you wanted to be with her; you said she could take care of herself… But you couldn’t leave the only other person who could fill the prophecy. And you only leave Ogygia to be with someone whose love is stronger than anything they could have with me.” She smiled at him and part of it was sad but she knew that it was better for her to have found Leo.     

Her words must have struck something within Percy because she could see him thinking hard back to that time. “I guess I had thought it was more of a protective love for someone who needed it…” he muttered, “but I guess the always running from me and leaving me in the dark is nothing to complain to you about.” At that she laughed and looked at him seriously.

“Percy,” she pushed some of his hair from his face and Nico couldn’t find his voice to make himself be heard, just so they would stop. What Percy had said made his heart hurt as reality hit him.

“I may have been left by more,” she admitted sadly, “but you have been chasing one for a long time, only to have them run faster… I don’t know how that must feel…”

A tear rolled down Percy’s cheek as he thought about Nico. “I think he has run away for the last time,” Percy wiped at the tear. “I yelled at him just before I watched him leave again and I wound up here…”

Thalia had been sitting quietly letting herself soak up the information and now it all made sense. She stood up and walked over to Nico, gripping him by the arm she yanked him from his protective shadows. “You little fucker,” she cursed and tossed him in front of Percy, whose eyes widened as he took in the son of Hades before him.

“Surprise,” Nico choked out weakly, not even noticing the tears that were slowly trailing down his cheeks.       

_Break_

Jason was walking back to the hospital when Piper came storming out, she had Hazel at her side and was apologizing for something profusely but her excess anger was making it difficult for her to get her point across.

“I told you I’m okay,” Hazel muttered and shuffled away from Piper uncomfortably.

“Hazel I hurt you, please let me take a look at it,” Piper growled and reached out for Hazel’s arm but Hazel turned to the side to avoid getting grabbed at again. “What the fuck Hazel? I just want to help!”

“It’s just a scratch,” Hazel snapped at her and turned around, at her feet small rubies started to pop out of the ground every time her foot hit the dirt.

Piper shouted something at Hazel in French that Jason didn’t understand and he stepped closer to her. “What’s wrong?” he asked tentatively.

“Shut up Jason,” Piper barked at him and glared.

“Sorry,” he lifted his hands up in surrender and Piper just rolled her eyes at him. “Come one Pipes, what is going on? I can help.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and lost her temper, again, “I’m not a fucking china doll Jason, I can take care of myself! Just leave me alone!” As she turned on her heel to leave she stormed into Leo and ran before she could be pulled into another conversation where she would no doubt lose her temper again.

_Break_

Nico and Percy stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Neither of them could say anything and Thalia was wondering how Calypso could stand the silence.  She was about ready to scream as she watched two ADHD demigods sit in silence for far too long. “Would one of you just say something? Or do something? Anything!” Her words seemed to fall on deaf ears and she turned on her heel to continue impatiently pacing.

The silence would normally be killing Nico, but if he was stuck in silence with Percy time seemed to speed up and he just marveled at how struck Percy looked as he stared at him. He needed Percy to be the one to break the silence because he would stay there like that forever.

“You came back,” Percy was shocked to see Nico before him, not to mention horrible embarrassed by the fact that Nico had just heard everything he had said. “I thought you were gone for good.”

When Nico heard him say that he knew he started to blush. Thalia looked down at him and some part of her couldn’t help but think about how much she had gotten on him. She hadn’t even realized the Percy may have feelings for him…

“I never left,” Nico admitted, looking up at Percy from where he was on the floor. Before Percy could say anything more Nico continued; “I was going to leave. But, I didn’t make it past our room when I felt you start to…” he rubbed his arms nervously, “I felt your soul start to slip away Percy…”

Percy wasn’t sure how to respond. He had made Nico feel something that was obviously horrible, and he wasn’t sure how to react but he could tell that Nico was pulling at his more fresh cuts to try and feel the pain again. Anything to not remember the feeling of Percy losing his soul to Nico’s own father… He looked down at the bandage that hid the evidence of Percy’s downfall, the cut beneath it had speckled the white bandage red and he was mesmerized by the color of his blood. Then he looked back at Nico and could practically see all of the regret in the boy’s black eyes. “It wasn’t your fault Nico,” he moved to get up but felt the world around him lose its solidity as he tried to stand. Calypso tried to keep him in the bed but he gently pushed her hand aside and slid to the floor in front of Nico. “It wasn’t your fault.”

As Percy pulled him into his lap Nico felt his walls slowly peel away. They didn’t crumble, no big break down because Nico was fairly certain he didn’t have the energy to do so anymore, but they started to fold back and let Percy comfort him. “I couldn’t think straight Percy… There was just so much and I don’t deserve you like Annabeth did and I can’t believe you saw just how _ugly_ I am. You shouldn’t have to be with someone like me.” He felt his head come to rest on Percy’s chest and the feeling was euphoric even in this state. The remaining muscles there tightened and shifted as Percy pulled Nico back to look the boy in the eyes.

“You are beautiful,” Percy told him seriously. Nico was all too aware of the two other people in the room to bring up his scars but Percy lifted his hand up to his lips and kissed his wrist. Both of them knew that the sweater Nico had wrapped himself up in was hiding something that no one would forget, but Percy just kissed the fabric that cloaked those scars. “Every single part of you tells a story, you just have to let me read your story.”

“Percy,” Calypso brought his attention away from Nico, not completely but enough to see that Calypso was looking pointedly at Thalia. He looked to his friend and saw the broken look in her eyes, the mask that she always wore had cracked and Percy felt his stomach drop as he tried to figure out what was going on. Fresh tears were streaming down her face, pulling with them both black and electric blue eyeliner. The streaks looked like watercolor on her pale face and her eyes were wide as she took in both Nico and Percy.

She had been so hard on him, so blatantly horrible to Nico all because she was afraid of losing her friend. But Percy needed Nico, he needed the boy more than he even knew and she could see that. And Nico, he was so utterly oblivious to how much Percy needed him because he didn’t think that he was worthy Percy. All Thalia may have done that day was make him confirm it…

The love in the room was overbearing, it was the one thing that she could never have in her life and she shook away her tears as she looked at Percy. “I- I- I’m sorry,” she had trouble finding her voice as she backed up to the door in a haste. “But I just can’t- Percy- I-I- need to… Goodbye,” her hand fumbled with the doorknob and she flung the door open to find fresh air, running past everyone who tried to come near her.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go! Please comment on what you think may happen next. Piper and Jason are going to have to work out their issues, and Pipers temper is going to come in handy really soon with someone. Soon they all have to start their classes and Annabeth goes on her first quest since the war! What do you think Thalia and Percy will say when they see each other again? And what is going to happen with Piper and Jason? Let me know what you think and I will have the next chapter up soon!   
> Loves  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	12. The Things We Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia needs to reconnect, not just for the others but for her own sanity as well. After fleeing the room where Percy was resting Calypso leaves as well and leaves the two boys to reconnect. How will everyone move past their vices?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the really crappy summary! I hope you all like the chapter, and I want you all to know that the relationship will be moving forward for both Nico and Percy, but that is all in due time :)  
> Love you guys  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 12: The Things We Do

Jason stared open mouthed after Piper stormed off away from him. It wasn’t until she was out of earshot that he shouted after her; “Yea well maybe you should walk away! I could leave you alone,” then quietly he spoke to himself, “you want me to leave you alone forever.”

He would have wallowed in self-pity if not for two things. One was that he and Piper had been fighting a lot recently. He thought that it was just him at first, always to tentative to touch her or bring up anything that may lead to him getting angry because he didn’t want to hurt her. And while he did that Piper was ultimately making everything worse by having her little attitude, forcing him to be confused and agitated. So he really didn’t want to dwell on everything that was going on with her because it just gave him a headache.

The second reason he couldn’t was because Leo was trying to make jokes on the subject and Thalia was stumbling towards them out of the hospital.

“It’s probably just that time of month for her,” Leo patted his back and Jason threw him a disgusted look over to the elflike boy.

“Never talk to me about my girlfriend’s cycle man,” Jason cringed away from Leo’s laugh and caught sight of his sister. Thalia was gasping for air as she weaved through the crowds of people trying to get to the hospital, a number of people were still in recovery after the war and it seemed that everyone in the entire city made a trip there at least once a day for someone. “Hey,” he turned to Leo and then looked pointedly at Thalia.

Leo seemed to get the message and shut up instantly. “See ya’ around?” he asked, and when Jason nodded he smiled and took off in the direction of the Praetor tents, probably to catch Annabeth before she took off. As he jogged away from the hospital Jason could catch him sneaking glances over his shoulder at both him and Thalia and the hospital. Calypso still hadn’t come out yet so Jason figured that Leo was worried about her.

“Thalia,” Jason called out at his sister got close. She was hyperventilating worse than he had thought, and tears were still streaming down her eyes as she tried to avoid him, but Jason was taller than her and he stuck out an arm to pull her into a hug.

Being hugged by her brother made Thalia officially lose it. She knew she sounded vile as she gasped for air in-between snot riddled sobs, but she couldn’t have cared less. Her brother was holding her, his arms reassuring her that he was in fact still alive. He was still with her. But when had it turned into him looking out for her? Hadn’t it always been her role to be the older sibling? And then Thalia did the math, Jason was nearing his sixteenth birthday… She should have been twenty one by now, if she hadn’t been a tree and then a hunter, she would have been twenty one.

That realization made her push Jason away from her and look at his face. He was so perfect, right down to his scar on his upper lip. Making sure to be careful she brushed her thumb over the white mark and tried to smile. “You’re almost sixteen,” she mused and worked on ingraining this image of Jason into her memory.

“You’re right,” Jason chuckled and the two of them made their way to the shade of a tree where they sat down on a patch of somewhat intact grass. “All these years and you didn’t forget my birthday?” he tried for light conversation but Thalia just looked pained.

It took a while before she responded but she finally turned her head toward him, he marveled at her blue streaked hair and heavy eyeliner. There was even a lip ring on the left side of her lower lip, she had changed a lot since they were kids. Then again he was sure he had too. “I am fifteen you know,” she broke the silence and watched as Jason’s face shifted to something she couldn’t quite place. She knew she had never been good at reading people, so she just pushed aside the voice that told her Jason was going to call her out on how horrible a sister she had been.

“Wow,” Jason sighed and looked at Thalia again before looking out over the broken city. “Talk about us bridging the age gap,” he joked again and managed to make Thalia smile.

“I’m still twenty one to you,” she reached out, unsure if it was okay for her to act sisterly towards him after all she had done to him. He didn’t pull away so she tugged him down into a hug before resting her chin on his forehead. “Look at this city,” she spoke in awe as the tow of them looked out over the landscape that had been destroyed in the war. “you are going to help rebuild this,” she told him, “and you are going to make this city yours. Protecting it with your life…” there was a brief silence before Thalia placed a firm his to his scalp like she had when they were kids and she had sheltered him from their mother, “and I will be in the background protecting you. Forever.”

He hadn’t realized how much he had missed his sister until they were together again. Jason had missed his older sister, as dorky as that sounded he didn’t care. Thalia wasn’t very present in his memory, since he had been so young when they were split, but what memories he did have of her were strong. She had been his shield before he had even learned to use a sword, and she had been his hero before he became one himself. In his eyes there was nothing that she couldn’t do, and now she had all the time on earth to prove to everyone that he was right. The two of them sat in comforting silence until Thalia knew she had to leave. She stood up behind him, waking him from the nap he was no doubt slipping into. When she helped him to his feet she forced him into a tight hug and smiled; “Jason?”

“Yeah,” he asked, shocked by the hug and even more by the fact that Thalia’s voice was shaking again.

She held him out at arm’s length, saddened by the fact that she had to reach up to grip his shoulders, “Not for a single day.” He looked at her confused, waiting for the tears shining in her eyes to make their way to her cheeks, “I never forgot you birthday for one single day. I never forgot you.” And then she just took off away from him, like she had something she had to confront and Jason couldn’t be a part of it. He remembered seeing her like that once before, abet it was a hazy memory, but he could remember her as a scrawny kid making her way off to talk to their mother…

He didn’t even realize that a tear had fallen down his cheek when she left.

_Break_

“I should probably go too,” Calypso said shyly as she forced Percy’s attention away from the door that Thalia had ran out of. He started to get up from the floor where he was curled with Nico. There was no doubt in her mind that he was planning on going after Thalia, but after a quick look between her and Nico the younger boy gripped Percy by the shoulder and forced all of his weight onto Percy to keep him still. “Doctors orders that you stay in and rest,” Calypso warned him and Nico nodded in agreement.

“But-,” Percy looked over to the door and then back at Calypso. Nico had to repress the urge to laugh as he saw how adorable Percy begged to be let go. And Calypso almost gave into it…

“You would have to leave Nico,” she mused, avoiding making direct eye contact with those pathetic sea green eyes. He looked at her and then at Nico and she knew she had him; “He is ordered to stay here and rest for at least a few hours.

Nico looked at her confused, “Why do I have to be confined here?” He questioned and looked back to Percy who seemed just as confused.

“When you give up as much blood as you have,” the look in Calypso’s eyes said she knew more than Nico wanted her to know, “even when it is to save someone else, you need to take a bit to recover. Seriously, you two are demigods not invincible.” She rolled her eyes and Percy grinned at Nico.

“Well there was this one time,” he drawled out, remembering the few months when he had the curse of Achilles. “For like, a few months…”

“Not completely,” Calypso reminded him and reached down to help Percy up. Nico scrambled off of him and between the two of them they had Nico back in bed. “You keep an eye on him and make sure that he doesn’t run away. I am going to go do a few things but don’t think I won’t be back,” she pointed sternly at Percy, “you are staying here overnight. Nico will be good in a few hours but I will make sure that you don’t leave this room even if he does.”

“How is that fair!” Percy pouted but Calypso just smiled back at him, remembering all of the things that had made her fall in love with the boy in the first place and then being relieved that she was going to enjoy those aspects in a friend.

“Fairs are for tourists’ kid,” she chuckled and turned to leave.

“You have been spending far too much time with Leo,” Percy yelled after her and threw his pillow at the door as it closed off the sound of her musical laugh.

The room was silent for a moment before Percy decided to look over at Nico. “What are you smiling about?” he grumbled and stared longingly at his pillow that was now laying on the floor. He hated the idea of getting out of the bed on his own but having someone bring it to him was even worse.

Nico chuckled and grabbed the pillow before Percy could protest and threw the feathery pouch at the boy. “Don’t be a baby and just let me help a little,” he moved and sat next to Percy on the bed, watching curiously as Percy gripped his pillow and buried his head into while lying on his side. Nico couldn’t help but notice how intently those sea green eyes were staring at the bandaging’s.  He reached out and took Percy’s hand hesitantly, there was a few areas where blood had started to seep through and Nico tried to not beat himself up about it in front of Percy. “Let me re-wrap that,” he said and grabbed a roll of gauze before shifting his position so that Percy’s arm laid out towards him.  “Are you going to tell me what you were thinking when you did this?” Nico raised an eyebrow at Percy as he started to unroll the old wrapping. Neat rows of stiches were revealed as Percy’s arm was exposed, and Percy felt like he was going to throw up as Nico inspected the injury.

He knew that if he tried to speak right then that he would say something stupid so he just stayed quiet. Nico didn’t seem to mind, he just worked with nimble fingers as he gave Percy a clean bandage, and Percy could feel the warmth of Nico’s hands as they cradled his arm. It wasn’t as though Nico were treating him like a helpless being, the way that Nico worked over his arm was in a way that showed he had practice doing this. That Percy just needed someone to be there for him.

Once the bandage was done Nico did what Percy had done to him and lifted the arm up so that he could kiss where the cut started. He hadn’t tried to lecture Percy on what he had done, that would have been overly hypocritical of him. But, he also didn’t show or explain to Percy what he was doing as he did it. If Nico could have his way then Percy would never hurt himself again.

“Is that one that you did?” Percy couldn’t help but feel like the tension in the room was going to implode. Nico hadn’t spoken as he wrapped Percy’s arm, but in his concentration Percy doubted that Nico had noticed his shirt shifting to expose a rough scar right off to the side of his neck. There was actually a few of them n a row, like claw marks, but they were small and faded like they were really old. He expected Nico to tense up, but when the boy looked at his own skin he was just filled with memories.

“Yea,” Nico admitted. “It is one of my older ones…”

“Would you tell me what happened?”

The question caught Nico off guard. He had never expect that to be a question anyone would ask him after finding out his secret. The stereotypical reaction was astonishment and disappointment. But this was Percy. “If I tell you about this, will you tell me about that?” Nico’s eyes darkened as he turned serious and he held Percy’s arm still in one hand.

“I would tell you regardless,” Percy admitted, “I wouldn’t be happy about it, but you didn’t leave this time. Even if it is about what happened I want you to stay around.”

A sad smile spread over Nico’s lips and he sighed. “It is actually one of the first… The group of them, one set on each side of my neck…” he watched and waited for Percy to say something but he just looked up at Nico quietly. “It was after I left Camp Halfblood. I didn’t do much after that aside from cry, it was really pathetic,” Percy shook his head at that but Nico just kept talking, “I would grip at my shoulders when I cried too much. My nails were getting too long, Bianca had always been the one to get on me about stuff like trimming my nails, and the pain wasn’t really what I noticed at first. It was just a slight burn, and then I gripped harder. I dug my nails as deep as they could go and suddenly I wasn’t crying anymore. Blood was caked under my fingernails in the morning, and I cut them to clean them, but I realized then that I could hurt myself…”

“What do you mean you realized?” Percy had laced his fingers into Nico’s and he looked up at the sun of Hades with earnest eyes.

“I had been fighting monsters just in the hopes that one of them would… That one of them would hurt me…” before Percy could tell him how awful that was Nico continued, “I didn’t start hurting myself after that… I didn’t want to die, so I just fought monsters until they weren’t hurting me anymore. Then I remembered that night, the night I had been able to clear my own mind. That was when it started.”

He knew that it would be silent, but he didn’t expect Percy to lift himself up to look Nico in the eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have been there for you.”

Nico knew it was dumb but he felt tears begin to pool in his eyes. “I didn’t want to bother anyone… None of you would have understood, you would have made me stop…” his words were honest and Percy shifted his focus to his arm.

“When I decided to pick up that blade,” Percy started, “I wasn’t just thinking about how much you leaving was going to hurt me… I, I wanted to test something.” Nico listened patiently and Percy took in a deep breath. “When Gabe was still in my life, he wasn’t always physically abusive… There were these stretches of time when all he did was prove to me that I was worthless, and then he would snap one night and hit me.” Percy noticed Nico stiffen but just continued, “I was embarrassed that he had so much control over me. But, when he hit me it was different. The words were way worse, they tortured me even to today. The fists, they were numbing… They made me forget, sometimes even making me black out. And that was what I was thinking about when I picked up your blade. I wanted to forget.”

Without realizing it Nico was holding Percy’s face in his free hand. “Percy, please don’t hurt yourself. I don’t ever want you to feel like that again.”

“The blade was better than the fists ever were,” Percy admitted, but he locked Nico’s gaze, “and that was what scared me. I can’t start that because I would never get myself out…” Nico nodded and Percy reached up to stroke his cheek. “I understand that you have been relying on this for so long;” he felt Nico nod and brought their faces closer together; “and I don’t expect you to be able to stop today. But, do you think that maybe,” he smiled as their foreheads touched, “maybe you could rely on that piece of metal a bit less and me a bit more?”

Nico didn’t want to tell Percy that he hadn’t even touched the blade to his skin in months, nearly six months now. He knew that if he told Percy that all it would do would make him think that it was all his fault that Nico had even touched the blade again. But he would be wrong, it wasn’t Percy who made him yearn for the small piece of silver again, it was him thinking that he had let himself get close again.

But now, now all that Nico could think was how happy he was that he had let himself get close to Percy again.

“Percy,” Nico whispered, “I think I can do that.”

Without warning Percy tilted Nico’s chin so that his lips were on Nico’s and the two of them were melding together. If it hadn’t been for Nico pushing back at him Percy was sure that he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself.

“Okay,” Nico gasped and fell against Percy’s chest, “You just had a brush with death and I just gave you a majority of my blood. I think both of us need to keep the blood we have in our heads where it belong.”

After letting out a chuckle Percy moved so that his arms were wound around Nico and Nico’s head was resting on his chest. “Alright,” he rested his lips on Nico’s head and spoke into his hair that smelt strangely like coconut and fruit. “Let’s just rest then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I will be updating again soon in a few days time. Just warning that I do not have internet where I am staying at the moment so the update may be a day late for me to go find a wifi spot. Oh the problems faced when looking over someone else's house!  
> Talk to you guys soon! Please comment on how you feel the story is going :)  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	13. Connections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason decides to go to Calypso for help on where he wants to go in the city. Hazel talks to her dad. And Annabeth shows vulnerability to Reyna.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this didn't have a lot of Percico in this chapter but I really wanted to put something out. The next chapter will be a long one on Percy and Nico more so than anyone else.   
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 13: Connections

 

Hazel got to the small temple that had been under construction in record time. She had been visiting the area more frequently than ever before, and a small part of that had to do with the fact that Annabeth had designed a beautiful temple for all the gods. Including Pluto.

The structure was low, built into a depression in the ground that was a good four feet deep, and it was made with black stones. Polished black marble rose to support an entryway, and more black marble was layered into the walls to give it a prestigious look, the windows were tinted but that hardly mattered because when you walked inside it was as bright as the fruit trees of the Underworld. Gems of all shapes and sizes lined the inner corners of the windows so light spilled in and made color dance on the white marble floor. That was another part that Hazel loved, the bright white polished floor that contrasted to the gem adorned walls and dark alter. Part of the temple was still being built, but Annabeth had put a rush to the Pluto temple as well as the Neptune temple, claiming that it was only fair to commemorate them first since they had been neglected for so long.

Her hands rested on the edge of the black alter and she sighed, she knew that there was a trail of gems leading anyone who wanted to find her right to the door of the temple but she didn’t care. All she cared about was the warm feeling that spread through her as she let herself take in all that was dedicated to her father.

She wasn’t even aware of it but a tear had fallen from her cheek and into the basin of the obsidian alter.

“Why Hazel,” Pluto’s voice filled the room and he smiled warmly at his daughter. “What is it you are crying about?”

At the sound of her father’s voice Hazel jumped and moved to hide behind the marble stand of the alter. She eyed him wearily from her hiding place and tried to figure out if he was there to take her back to the Underworld. It had been nearly a year since he had told her that he was turning a blind eye to her existence, the best way for a parent to ignore you ever, and now here he was.

He was there because she was crying.

There wasn’t even anything for her to cry about, after all since the war was over she had been one of the ones to come out of it best. Aside from fearing every day that she would see Thantos around the corner there was little to bother her since Leo came back. He was alive, happy in a relationship with Calypso; and she was now happy with Frank and all of them were living in New Rome. All of them were going to be living in New Rome once it was rebuilt.

Missing her father seemed to be a small thing compared to everything else.

“Don’t worry Hazel,” Pluto smiled towards his daughter and Hazel swore she could see the multicolored iridescent lights filtering through his form. “I am sorry but this is only a small part of me, I am not here to take you back.” He stood from the pew he was sitting on and moved toward her, encouraging her to stand up.

“I thought that you couldn’t see me unless I was going back to the Underworld…” she straightened and looked at him with large golden eyes.

Pluto softened, his form fading just slightly before he showed himself nearly solid to her and then faded again, “You are right,” his voice was somewhat sad but she found herself pulled towards him for comfort. “I cannot see you Hazel Levesque, not if I want you to have your fair chance at life. But that does not mean that I don’t care enough to chance it once in a while.” He winked and Hazel felt more tears fall from the corners of her eyes. He reached into his robe with a sly smile and pulled something out for her to open. It was wrapped in an older paper bag wrapping, soft and worn and yet still somewhat beautiful. She saw a tear darken one corner of the paper just before she tore the package open.

Inside was an old coloring book and a box of colored pencils.

Hazel smiled and threw her arms around her father as she let out a sob. “Thank you so much,” she cried and felt his arms wrap around her in response.

“I am tired of my children not feeling loved,” Pluto sighed as he held her, “You are one that has fought that so bravely, and I love you for showing your brother that there is a chance for him as well.”

The two of them stood there holding each other and for once Hazel wasn’t afraid of Thantos looming up behind her.

_Break_

“Where is it?!”

“What are you looking for?”

“I know it was here!”

“What are you looking for?”

“I just saw it last night!”

“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?”

“I was _just_ wearing it-,”

“Annabeth!” Reyna grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her so that the blonde girl would look at her.

The moment that Annabeth was gripped she went limp on the spot. Her mind went blank with terror as she realized that she may have to fight and she froze in fear of what she may do. It wasn’t as though she thought she couldn’t fight anymore, it was the fact that she knew what she was capable of and what she had done to so many before. All of the curses came rushing back at her every time she thought about grabbing for her blade and it caused her to lock up and hide away, trying to find a way to rationalize what was happening so she could fix it.

But there was no way to find reason in something like her irrational fears. So she just collapsed against Reyna and felt the taller girl wrap her arms around her.

“Annabeth,” Reyna’s voice was filled with concern but Annabeth could barely hear her; “Annabeth are you okay? Talk to me sweetie, maybe I can help.”

Annabeth felt herself try to swim to the surface and she reached for Reyna in return, pulling her girlfriend down towards her on the bed where they rolled to the side and curled into each other. Reyna ran her fingers through Annabeth’s hair and tried to soothe her. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked nervously. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn’t good at talking to people she liked in the way she liked Annabeth about their problems.

Thankfully for her, Annabeth seemed to know this. Instead of pouring out her heart, in a very un- Annabeth way, she just pulled their bodies closer together and pushed her lips against the skin of Reyna’s neck. Shocking tingles when through Reyna’s spine and forced a small gasp from her lips. “Annie,” she sounded embarrassing but with Annabeth she didn’t care, “Annie come on, you’re teasing me…”

“I don’t have to be,” Annabeth chuckled and pressed herself against her girlfriend, forgetting about the curses and about Tartarus she just latched onto the sweet scent of Reyna and ran her tongue up towards her earlobe where she nipped playfully. “After all,” she breathed into Reyna’s ear and relished in her shivers, “we know that I will be gone for a long time. I may never come back, it could be dangerous.”

At that thought all of the high feeling coursing through Reyna’s veins vanished and she pulled Annabeth’s chin up to look her in the eyes. The storm filled grey had clouded with lust and Reyna had to focus on the words that had just been spoken to keep from consuming her. “Don’t talk like that,” she warned and watched as the horror started to fill Annabeth’s eyes.

“You don’t want-,”

“I never said that,” Reyna’s voice was stern as she tried to keep herself under control. “I love you, but never just say you are going to die. If you did I couldn’t handle it.” And they both knew that it was true, after being left by so many it would be even more difficult to overcome. “If anything happens to you I will march down to the Underworld and take you back from Pluto’s clutches myself.”

She could see Annabeth’s fill with tears but she wiped them away and pulled her face upward to kiss her. “Now,” she said as they pulled apart, “we do live dangerous lives. And you are going to be gone a long while, so if you want to…”

Before she could say anything more Annabeth was kissing her again. Her hands making their way up under Reyna’s shirt and Reyna moaned deep against Annabeth’s lips. The two of them lost their thoughts in one another, the touches leaving heated trails on each other’s bodies as they let their fingers graze over their skin. “I think I love you,” Reyna whispered as Annabeth sucked the skin of her shoulder and bit at her neck softly.

 “I think I love you too.”

_Break_

Calypso stood up as the sun started to set and wiped that sweat from her forehead. She knew that Leo would be down with Annabeth before she left, the two of them had to finalize a few of the details in the planning before she left for her quest. It was going to be her first one since they returned and Calypso could tell that she was excited for it.

As for herself Calypso couldn’t wait to see the world. She knew that she wouldn’t be doing quests like the rest of them, but the idea of traveling thrilled her after being stuck in one place for so long. It was going to be a while before she could leave; Leo was working on the reconstruction for the Roman camp and he was going to be doing the same for the Greek camp within the next year. Since both him and Annabeth had to finish school it had been decided that the first camp to be rebuilt would be New Rome so that all the demigods could attend a safe school while work was done on Camp Half Blood. Everyone knew that Annabeth wanted to build a city near the camp that would serve as another New Rome, Greek central of course, and Calypso knew that Leo would be excited about that as well.

She only hoped that in between one of the projects Leo would be able to take her somewhere. Anywhere. Calypso had even thought of venturing out into San Francisco just to see how different the world was now. That was what she dreamt of most, was experiencing the new.

“Hey,” a voice called out to her and Calypso turned to see Jason Grace running toward her. His hair seemed to glow on his head from the back drop of the setting sun. “I wanted to talk to you,” he breathed just slightly heavier than normal as he came to a stop in front of her and stretched his hand out for her to shake.

Before gripping his hand Calypso brushed the dirt from her own. She had a strong grip, one that matched Jason’s, and she smiled kindly up at him. “Hello, it’s nice to see you again.”

Jason smiled at the Titan before him and laughed, “You as well.”

“So what did you want to talk to me about?” she watched him look over all the work that her and the nymphs had been doing the past few days. A few children of Demeter had shown up as well to help out, their skills matched the gardening better than the construction and it had helped a lot. The plot of outstretched land before them was now starting to sprout buds and even a few stalks and vines had started to grow on the far end of their patch.

With a big grin at all that Calypso had managed to do for them in such a short time. “Actually it kind of has to do with all the work you have been doing,” Calypso raised an eyebrow to him but he continued, “I am taking a step farther to rebuild so Reyna isn’t so stressed,” her eyebrow didn’t lower so he smiled weakly at her, “it is my home after all.” At that Calypso softened a bit and the two of them started to walk around the field, talking about pushing forward with the reconstruction.

Once they were done talking it was twilight and Calypso returned to the hospital only to find Percy asleep with Nico on his bed. Nico was holding Percy possessively and for once Percy seemed at ease. Leo smiled at her from where he was standing outside the door and pulled her into a kiss.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you all liked it. Give me your ideas on relationship developments and all that jazz. Let me know what you thought, I love all of you guys.   
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	14. We All Protect Someone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Percy are finally on stead ground, maybe? Or will the revelation that Annabeth is going on a quest alone disturb all that they have finally achieved? Hazel is hesitant to accept Percy, and Reyna is unsure of where she stands with Annabeth until a necklace changes everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this makes up for the lack of Percico/ Nicery in the last chapter. Lots of it in this one. Hope you guys like it :)  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 14: We All Protect Someone

 

When Percy woke up he was faced with a familiar pair of golden eyes that he had haunted his most recent nightmares. He could feel silky strands in his hand and realized that his hand was in Nico’s hair, and Nico had one arm curved across his back and the other looked as though someone had pulled it away from Percy and laid it at Nico’s side. Percy’s eyes widened and he started to move only to have Hazel’s voice freeze him in his position.

“If you wake him up I’ll cut you,” Hazel warned with a small smile, it was all she could manage since she had watched Percy and Nico cuddle the entire time she had been there. The look that had been on Nico’s face as he had held Percy was so full of trust and happiness that Hazel had nearly let him continue to hold Percy like a lifeline. But she knew if she did that without seriously talking to Percy that she would always blame herself if Nico got hurt.

Percy tentatively rubbed at his eye, trying his hardest not to disturb Nico but the movement seemed to make him realize that he was no longer holding Percy and his arm came up to wrap around Percy’s waist. Percy stared at Hazel and could feel his cheeks heat up, even more so as Nico’s arms flexed to grip onto Percy tighter and pull him close. He couldn’t help but feel safe and content as the smoky sweet scent of Nico filled him; something crossed between fruity and woodsy that Percy knew he would never be able to place. Nico muttered Percy’s name in his sleep as he rested his chin on Percy’s head. Hazel seemed amused yet there was still a worry to her golden eyes that made Percy’s hurt. He wasn’t sure if he should be prepared for her to cry or throw more rubies at him.

“Hazel,” he whispered as though he had to get her attention. She raised an eyebrow at him and he thought he had never been more terrified of her than he was at that moment, not knowing what she was going to do to him once her brother let him go. Just another reason for him to want Nico to hold him forever. “I… I swear we didn’t… It was just… We were both stuck here…”

Hazel smiled as she sighed slightly, feeling a sense of relief even though she knew that nothing could have happened between them here. “I’m not going to hurt you Percy,” she told him, and he let out a breath of air so big he had to have been holding it for a while. She was glad that she could intimidate the big shot Percy Jackson that much. “I’m just worried about him…”

As soon as she said that Percy and her both looked over to Nico. He was still in his long sleeved shirt, the black setting off his skin that was even paler than normal due to blood loss, and the circles underneath his eyes stood out drastically. The way his messy mop of hair fell in the center of his face made Percy smile and he slowly pushed it to the side, letting his finders graze over the shorter strands on the side. Even though his undercut wasn’t the stereotypical shaved sides it worked on him, having just enough there for Percy to mindlessly play with. It was barely even finger length but it was so soft that Percy knew he could mess with it all day.

“I know what you mean,” he murmured. When he looked back towards her the look on her face was fairly puzzled but he just chuckled and adjusted himself so that he was surrounded by Nico’s warmth again. “He told me how much he worried about me, but the truth is even if I didn’t realize how much he meant to me back then, I worried about him every single day. It killed a part of me that he wouldn’t come back to camp. Another part of me was furious that he would just show up whenever he felt like it then leave just as quick… He talks about worrying about me but I want him to know that I worry for him too. Even now…”

“Thalia told me what Calypso said. About you leaving her on her island for Nico… Is that true?” When Percy nodded Hazel thought for a minute. She hadn’t known Percy back then, but she knew that he was a horrid liar. Taking a deep breath she leaned forward to ask him the question that she feared the answer to most; “Do you still love Annabeth?”

The air was still for a moment and Percy’s eyes filled with memories of the past as he moved to speak. “Of course I still love Annabeth. But I love her like I love you Hazel, you or Piper or Jason. Annabeth and I may be closer to each other than I am to most anyone else right now, but that is because we have been through so much together. She helped me save my mom once, and she taught me how to survive camp. I know she is going to help me finish school. But with her, especially now, there is damage to our bond that can never be undone. She can’t open up to me and I can’t confide in her because we are less like lovers and more like siblings. We try to outdo each other to the point of never wanting to show our weak sides.” Hazel’s eyes were wide as he spoke, and with how glossy they were he knew that he was being far too serious; “I mean come on Haze, the first thing she ever said to me was that I drooled in my sleep, that is a horrid pick up line!”  

At that Hazel actually had a genuine laugh escape her.

“Don’t laugh at me,” Nico’s voice was still half asleep and he even had his eyes closed still as he started to shift on the bed. “And you sound like a girl…”

“Well I hope I sound like a girl,” Hazel scolded him and leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, a clear sign that Percy wasn’t to tell Nico that he had been interrogated by his sister.

Nico’s eyes fluttered open and Percy realized just how long his eyelashes were. When Nico saw Hazel and then looked at how he was holding Percy he quickly scrambled back from the boy he was so head over heels for and fell out of the bed, landing on his hip and causing him to hiss in pain. “What are you doing here Hazel?” He asked and quickly glared up to Percy who was snickering in the bed, cuddled up with a blanket now.

Hazel laughed and helped her brother up to his feet. “Oh you know, just watching my dark punk brother play the role of teddy bear to the world’s biggest hero.”

Once Nico’s half-awake brain processed the words he blushed bright red. “I am not labeled!” he told her defensively, choosing to ignore that he had been literally sleeping with Perseus Jackson.

After a round of giggles Hazel calmed down and looked at him, “If you were going to be labeled we could just tattoo Percy’s name on your forehead. How does that sound for your next tattoo?”

“You have a tattoo?” Percy sat up on the bed, rubbing his hand over the bandaging on his arm. The ambrosia and nectar he had been given was very little since they were short after the war, but it still made the healing process faster and the wound was already starting to itch.

He watched as Nico blushed and wondered how often he could make that happen. “Yea…” Nico fiddled with his hands, they always reflected how he felt when he spoke, “Actually I have four…”

Percy’s eyes widened. He had seen Nico topless recently, had he been so lust crazed he hadn’t noticed a few tattoos? Where else would Nico have them, if his body was so littered with scars?

Hesitantly lifting one of his pant legs Nico showed Percy the first tattoo he had ever gotten. It was a black and grey shaded mythomagic Hades figurine what was cracked at the base. The face looked sad and silver dust poured from where it was cracked, snaking outward as he was sure Bianca’s spirit had done when she chose rebirth. “It’s beautiful,” Percy whispered and Nico looked up from the art to meet Percy’s glazed eyes, obviously taking in all the meaning of the tattoo.

“Thank you,” he smiled and pushed the leg of his skinny jeans back down. It was a fairly big tattoo, taking up his calf. “I will show you the others some other time.”

“My favorite is the one on the back of your shoulder,” Hazel chimed in and smiled at her older brother.

Nico rolled his eyes at Hazel, “Of course it is,” he looked at her and smiled, “it reminds you of you for a reason.”

Hazel smiled and hugged her brother. “Do your tattoos all mean something as deep as the one on your calf?” Percy wasn’t sure if it was a safe question to ask but his mouth worked faster than his brain.

To his surprise Nico just smiled at him and nodded. “I may like tattoos but I won’t get anything that doesn’t have meaning to me. After all it will be there forever. Most of mine are to people I care about,” he reached over and noogied the top of Hazel’s head.

“Do you have one for me?” Percy’s voice was so soft that he was sure no one had heard him, after all it was more just something he was wondering to himself. Nico felt his cheeks heat up but Percy was blushing far harder as he looked at his hands and Nico took the chance to mess with him.

Leaning down he let his lips brush against Percy’s ear softly; “You are going to have to find out, aren’t you?”

Shocked Hazel hit Nico in the arm and he laughed at the expression painted on Percy’s face. If he had been blushing before he was on fire now, only Nico may be able to surpass the red that had filled his cheeks and dusted down his neck.

_Break_

That morning when Annabeth woke up she was greeted by the warmth of Reyna’s body next to her. She smiled and looked around the room that they had basically been sharing since the second week Annabeth had been in New Rome. It wasn’t glamorous, nice considering that Reyna was in a thrown together room after giving her living quarters up to house the injured that didn’t need to stay in the hospital. While they had been working on the temples for the gods, shelter for themselves was also a priority. The school dorms had been a great start, but they also needed to rebuild the barracks and the rehab center for wounded soldiers so Reyna could have her living quarters back.

A smile broke out on Annabeth’s face as she thought of how amazing a leader her girlfriend was. She slinked out from under Reyna’s arm and made her way to the propane stove that occupied one corner of Reyna’s small room. Next to it was a refrigerator and Annabeth pulled out a couple of eggs along with milk. There was a hanging pantry above the stove and Annabeth continued to grin as she pulled items down.

By the time she was done Reyna was already waking up. She caught sent of food and blinked her eyes to see Annabeth with a plate in one hand and a glass of milk in the other.

Annabeth was by no means the world’s best cook, the fried eyes she had done she had cracked the yolk, and the slice of toast was burned on one side. But she had tried. Her sliced fruit looked great, it was precisely cut the same width and looked like it had been done in a factory. Reyna loved it. She took the glass of milk and the plate and set them on the side table before pulling Annabeth into a morning kiss. “You are amazing,” she said when they pulled apart and she grabbed her plate to dig into her food.

“I figured you deserved breakfast in bed,” Reyna’s eyes twinkled with a knowingly perverse thought and Annabeth felt her cheeks flare up, “because I will be gone for the next few days! Gosh you have a dirty mind.” She fanned herself for dramatic effect and gained a dark chuckled from Reyna.

Clearing her throat Reyna leaned closer to Annabeth, “You must have one too if you knew what I was thinking.” Watching her girlfriend turn into a tomato Reyna laughed out loud and fell back against her pillows before downing the last of the milk. “You know what you’re doing is so not fair,” she complained as she dug back into her food.

“What do you mean by that?” Annabeth was still trying to compose herself after Reyna’s last comment.

Reyna picked up her toast and took a bite; “You are being such a good girlfriend and then you’re going to leave. Who will make me breakfast and be here when I get done with work?”

Glaring at the girl still under the covers Annabeth’s voice was only slightly defensive; “That’s sexist!”

“How?” Reyna deadpanned and Annabeth thought for a moment before laughing. The two of them fell against each other when Reyna was done licking her plate clean and Annabeth found herself absently playing with the ends of Reyna’s hair. “So what were you looking for last night?” Reyna asked her softly as she wrapped and arm around Annabeth’s shoulders.

Annabeth thought back to the night before, blushed and then remembered that she had been looking for her camp necklace. “Oh gods,” she exclaimed as she sat up and felt her neck. “I couldn’t find my necklace,” panicked she looked under the pillow and blankets.

The entire time Reyna was silent.

“Have you seen it?” Annabeth asked as she moved to get up and look in the bedside table. When Reyna didn’t answer she turned and looked at her girlfriend, seeing the guilty expression on her face she made her way back towards the bed. “Reyna?” when she caught the brown eyes and held them she continued, “where is my necklace?”

Fidgeting guiltily Reyna moved the covers back and pulled her right knee to her chest. Leaning closer to her foot Reyna worked her fingers over her ankle. “I’m sorry… You forgot it after your shower so I took it to keep it safe and… It was nice. Having a piece of you with me all the time made me feel like I was yours…”

Smiling Annabeth made her way to Reyna’s side and sat next to her. Taking her necklace in her hands she looked over the beads. “You are mine Reyna,” Annabeth sighed and felt Reyna turn her gaze towards her, “And I am so much yours that it is dizzying,” she confided and ran her fingers over ever decoration that adorned her necklace. She didn’t have it in her to leave that behind, it was her past and all her memories, but she was touched that Reyna had felt loved when she had it. Reaching over to her pack Annabeth took out a roll of leather string and cut off a necklace length piece. She took the last of the beads from her necklace off and strung it onto the stretch of leather; it was a purple and orange bead that had SPQR on one side and CHB on the other, showing the new bond between the camps. Showing what brought her and Reyna together.

After stringing on the bead Annabeth took out her earrings and twisted the metal end of one of them around the leather so it was secure and the owl dangled down. She did the same with the other on her own necklace before fastening it around her neck and holding out the new necklace to Reyna. “This is one you can keep. One that is all me and yet for you.”

Surprised Reyna took the necklace and marveled at the bead and owl that adorned it. Quickly she opened the drawer on the side table and brought out her jewelry box. Nestled at the bottom of it in a layer of velvet was a set of earrings in the shape of dogs, one was silver one was gold. She held out the silver one to Annabeth; “I want you to have something of me as well.”

From the look on Annabeth’s face Reyna could tell she was embarrassed but didn’t care as she leaned in and pierced the sharp back of the earring through the leather and secured it. Doing the same to her own new necklace she tied it around her neck. When she was done she saw Annabeth fingering the new ornament added to her necklace, a smiled playing on her lips. “I love it,” she whispered and looked up to Reyna.

Reyna smiled back and played with the owl that dangled at the base of her throat; “I love mine too.”

_Break_

Reyna knew that saying goodbye to her girlfriend was hard, but she also had to handle her Praetor duties. One of those was checking in with the hospital on a daily basis to make sure that those who were ready to move out of the limited wings did and that there was plenty of room for those who needed it. She also wanted to take the opportunity to visit Percy since she hadn’t made her way through the blockade of people the previous day.

Knocking hesitantly on his door Reyna peered in only to see a small girl in a white uniform turning down the bed. “Where is Percy?” Reyna asked hesitantly, last she had heard he had been doing fine but she was still worried about him.

“Him and the two people he was with went to the cafeteria,” the girl answered as she pulled a rolling cart with a bag full of dirty laundry out of the room with her. “They left just before I showed up to clean.

Relief flooded through Reyna and she smiled at the girl before taking her leave into the hall where she headed straight for the dingy cafeteria with horrid fluorescent lights that she had hated putting in. The older metal tables that dotted the area were falling apart, but they had been all that was available after the war was over and everything else was destroyed.

Percy was sitting at the edge of one of those tables with Nico next to him and Hazel across. The three of them were eating off of the yellowing plates but at least the spirits had split to cover serving both the healthy and the injured since they were nearly equal in number. They looked happy and Reyna felt awkward as she walked up to disrupt them, but as soon as Percy looked up and saw her he waved her towards them.

“Reyna!” he smiled at her as did Nico. Hazel stood up and saluted her, making her remember that she was wearing her Praetor robes as she took the seat next to the daughter of Pluto.

She looked at all of them, taking in the bandaging on Percy’s arm and wondering what he would say if she asked about it. After shaking those thoughts away she returned his smile as best she could with her head so full of depressing thoughts; “It’s good to see you up and moving,” she commented and watched as he picked at the food on his plate.

Her words made Percy blush, he had a pomegranate that Nico had given him and was eating the seeds slowly. They were annoying but they made him think of Nico, and he figured that may help him keep them down. “Yea…” he pushed some of the other food on his plate around and looked up to Reyna with shame in his eyes, “I guess I should be more careful around sharp objects.”

No one felt his joke was funny.

Nico took Percy’s hand in his under the table and smiled at Reyna, “Today both of us have to sign up for classes. They start soon and I bet if we wait any longer Annabeth is going to end up giving Percy a two hour lecture on the importance of education that I will have to sit through as well.”

“I don’t think she will be bothering you for much longer,” Reyna said absent mindedly. It was easy to see that Nico was changing the subject but Reyna wanted to help so desperately, even if she knew that there was little she may be able to do. When she caught the slightly confused look on their faces she continued, “her and Thalia are leaving on a quest today.”

“What?!” Percy dropped his fork and listened to it clatter to the ground as he moved to stand up.

Everyone looked at him with wide eyes and Nico couldn’t help but feel a stab of jealousy as he saw the protective look in Percy’s eyes. “What do you mean they are leaving on a quest?” Nico looked at Reyna and she could see the pain in his eyes.

“The hunters needed her help on figuring out some puzzle, that was all they would tell me. It was pretty secretive and hush hush because of Lady Artemis.” All of them turned to Hazel who rolled her eyes at them. “Hey I was the one who was told I wasn’t good enough to guide them back and they wanted a different guide. Thalia wanted to see Annabeth and instead of waiting for Annabeth to go get her she found her way herself so I asked Phoebe and she told me as much as she could.”

“Annabeth can’t go on a quest,” frustrated Percy started to remove himself from the table and headed for the exit. “She will die.”

“Percy give her a bit of credit,” Hazel said softly, seeing the pained expression on her brother’s face she couldn’t help but feel angry with Percy. “She is a pretty decent fighter.”

Ignoring them all Percy only stopped when he felt Nico grip his wrist. He realized how all he was doing may seem, and his heart lurched as he took in Nico’s face, but he knew that letting Annabeth go right now would be like signing her death certificate. She couldn’t fight to save herself if she was still freezing with the thought of each curse that had been placed on her… The entire experience was still taboo between them, but if she couldn’t find someone to talk to about it then she would never move on from it…

“Come with me to talk to her,” Percy took his hand and pulled Nico close. “This isn’t me leaving you for her I swear. I just… She won’t talk to me about it and I worry…” Nico could tell that something important was going on with Annabeth for Percy to be this worried, and if he was going to be jealous then he may as well go see for himself…  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think. What do you all think will happen with Percy and Annabeth? Will Nico and Percy actually make it? Let me know what you guys think will happen and if you guys like the direction it is going. I love you guys :)  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	15. Protective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Issues arise when Percy realizes that Annabeth is going on a quest. Furious that he wasn't informed earlier him and Annabeth end up fighting and Thalia has to step in to play mama. Meanwhile Piper is trying to keep her anger under control and is asked to assist in helping solve the situation of Annabeth's safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I would go on a really long apology as to why I was gone but that would take up a great deal of time so I am just going to say that I am sorry this update is so late and I promise I am not abandoning the fic. Life happens though and you have to make the best of what is going on around you so... yeah! Hope you guys enjoy this update and hopefully you will be getting new chapters more regularly :)

Chapter 15: Protective

 

Leo was trying to keep track of all the demands that Annabeth was making as she got ready to leave. It wasn’t that his mind had a hard time keeping up, but more so that each time she thought she was done one more detail popped into her head and she would come jumping back to Leo’s side to scare him and make him write it down. That was what begged him the most, that she wanted him to write it all down, and even Leo had to admit that his handwriting was not the best. He was probably going to have to rewrite each note so the others could read them.

“And then if you could just make sure that the temples—

“Annabeth!” Leo turned and placed his hands one each of her shoulders. She jumped a bit and didn’t move for a moment but when he smiled at her she slowly came to her senses and laughed along with him. “You will be back before I have time to finish this list,” he pointed to the book full of crudely scribbled notes that he had at least four if not five pages full of, “and if by some miracle I do then I will message you, okay?”

Someone came up behind him and wound their arm around his neck, causing him to jump and look over his shoulder. He was greeted with a mouth full of soft cinnamon waves and the warm smell of earth. “Please don’t take all of Leo’s time away from me,” Calypso’s voice was soft and she smiled at Annabeth before reaching up on her tip toes to kiss Leo on the cheek. “I want to spend at least a little time with him exploring now that I’m off my island.”

Reyna cleared her throat as she entered what Leo had started calling the command center. In reality it was nothing more than a large common area that Annabeth had started posting her plans in and lecturing Leo on what to start working on where. There were plans pinned up to the walls and taped onto white boards and laid out on tables, not to mention rolled up and stuffed into bins all over the place. She sighed and moved her way over to her girlfriend just as Percy tripped over the nearest box with Nico catching him. “You will have plenty of time to cuddle your boyfriend after Annabeth gets back from her quest.”

“You know not everyone has to miss their partners just because yours is going to be gone,” Leo wrapped his arm around Calypso and stuck his tongue out at Reyna before kissing his girlfriend on her temple. Calypso blushed furiously but Reyna just glared down her nose at the insolent Greek.

Percy grabbed at the last of the blueprints he had knocked over and finished getting them stuffed into the overcrowded box before he turned to face Annabeth, her eyes never quite meeting his because she already knew what he was going to say. “Who even said that Annabeth was leaving? She hasn’t been approved for a quest.”

“Actually she was,” Reyna and Thalia stated as Thalia entered from a back room with her bag packed. Her eyes were sad as they rested on Percy. Percy knew that he needed to talk to her before she left as well but right now all his focus was on Annabeth and how badly he wanted to force her to admit that she wasn’t able to fight anymore.

“I talked with Reyna, granted it wasn’t like the old days but it was an official Praetor granted mission. Annabeth is going with us to solve a… problem for Lady Artemis.” Thalia finished and Reyna looked smug as she smirked over at Percy but he didn’t even care.

All he wanted was to keep Annabeth safe. “Annabeth,” he begged, “come on. Look at me and tell me that you can do this. Tell me that it won’t affect you like it has been.”

No one in the room aside from the two of them knew what he was talking about, and Annabeth still refused to look at Percy. She stared just passed him at Nico, making eye contact with him and giving him a look that said so much and begged him to not tell Percy something but he had no idea what until she spoke as though she were talking to Percy himself; “I won’t let it affect me.”

Before Nico could look away Percy was glancing back and forth between them and putting two and two together. “No, no, no, no, no! You can’t pull that over on me right now Annabeth. Your life is important to me!”

“And you don’t think I care?” Reyna was defensive and moved to stand in front of her girlfriend protectively.

Percy looked at Reyna with respect and sighed, “I know you do Reyna, but have you sparred with her? Have you seen what happens when she has to fight?” At that he saw anxiety flash across her face and knew that she wasn’t confident that Annabeth could keep from locking up either. “You mention the name nobody and she loses her sight,” at that Annabeth started to fume, blinking her eyes rapidly she pushed past Reyna.

“I do not Seaweed Brain!” she shouted at him but everyone could see the panic in her eyes.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Percy couldn’t handle the fact that she was burying her fears in the facts instead of facing them, and he wanted so desperately to trust her to defend herself again. “Then say what happened Annabeth! Talk to someone! Anyone!”

At that Thalia stepped in and glared at Percy, “Enough,” she warned him, her tone threatening, “this is not a discussion for you to be trying to have here.”

Nico Rested a hand on his shoulder and shook his head, telling him to stop.

“Thalia you can’t take her with you if she can’t fight…” Percy’s voice was breaking and Nico wondered if he had ever caused Percy to worry this much… “Have her spar with someone to prove that she can hold her own and not get hurt.”

Reyna knew that what Percy was suggesting made sense but she still felt the need to stick up for her girlfriend; “There is never a guarantee that we won’t get hurt.”  

“You know what I meant Reyna.”

They all looked at Annabeth and while she nodded in agreement she didn’t even have the confidence to cross her arms in determination.

_Break_

Piper had managed to calm herself down a bit and was standing outside her mother’s new temple, glaring at it. Even though this was built for Venus instead of Aphrodite she knew that her mother didn’t really change in her forms; in fact she was one of the least fazed of all the gods. That made it even worse for Piper, who had thought of New Rome as an escape from being ‘Aphrodite’s Daughter’. It was the same here, no one took her seriously and all they ever did was see her as a pretty face.

And a voice.

But Piper wanted to be so much more than that. She had learned to fight, she had proven that she could go up against monsters, and she had managed to save her friends. It wasn’t a secret that without her help they would have all fallen apart so why did it feel like now that the fighting was over her charmspeak was no more than a diplomatic tool? No one ever asked to spar with her, or try to train with her, or even see if she was still interested in fighting.

Shouting at the temple in frustration Piper punched the marble column that stood closest to her. There were over two dozen ringing the building and Piper hadn’t thought about how much it would hurt to hit one. Pain bloomed over her knuckles and she knew that they were broken. “Why did you have to be my mother?” Piper all but cried as she clutched her hand and leaned in so her forehead was resting on the column. “I am nothing like you…”

“Yo Beauty Queen,” Leo’s voice sounded behind her and Piper turned as fast as she could, hiding her hand behind her back as she looked at her best friend and tried to figure out just how bad the break was by moving her fingers. It was bad.

She forced a smile anyways and tried to make sure that she didn’t hurt another one of her friends for no good reason. “You know I hate that name Valdes,” her tone probably sounded more irritated than she really was but she was trying to breathe and speak through the pain that was flaring over her knuckles. “So what do you want?”

Leo smiled at her and whistled, “You know I only call you that because you kick ass while being forced to live in the powder blue and bubble gum pink cabin,” he always knew what to say. Piper felt something inside of her swell with what she thought might be confidence but ever since the war she hadn’t felt that so she wasn’t sure. “We kind of, sort of, might, maybe, really desperately need your help,” Leo continued as he sauntered over to her in that way he always did when he wanted something. His large brown eyes blown wide open as he blinked up at her, she had to cave and say that Percy had the kid beat but damn. When Leo wanted something he knew how to try and charm you into getting it.

“With what?” she lowered her voice and stared at him with wide and untrusting eyes. Any second she was sure that the kid was going to turn into a cherub.

Her reaction made him chuckle darkly, his curls bouncing as he started to full out laugh at her and then he leaned in close. She still hand her hand gripped tightly behind her but she was well aware that he knew she was hiding something. “I think you’re going to have fun with this one,” he told her and tried to look over her shoulder to see what was in her hand. “You see Reyna and Percy have run into this problem with Annabeth leaving for her quest. She hasn’t dueled anyone since the war, and it was agreed that you would probably be the best one for her to go up against.”

Immediately Piper took offence to that; “What, send the Aphrodite kid to make sure that if Annabeth is rusty she won’t get hurt? Because I’m not a real fighter?”

This time an even darker chuckle cut her off and Piper was staring at a terrifyingly devious side of Leo. “Actually,” he told her between ragged breaths, “it is more like we want to set her up with someone with a lot of anger and the ability to get in her head. You should know that I know you well enough that I would bet on you if you and Annabeth went in a ring and she pulled out her dagger and you were gloveless. I had you protect me more than enough times back in school to know you can hold your own.”

Both of them looked at each other for a while but Leo knew he had her hooked into his plan. Piper had so much pent up aggression that a god could ask her to spar and she would probably think it was a good idea at this point. Leo understood why Jason didn’t want to push it anymore, not after what he had done to her in that one fight, but he had to realize that Piper was more than capable of handling herself out there.

Piper huffed and looked at the Hispanic boy as he turned to leave with a shit eating grin on his face. “I never even said yes,” she cursed at herself for following him but Leo just looked back over his shoulder and smirked his half grin at her.

“You didn’t have to Pipes,” he told her, “that spark in your eye is more than enough to tell me you want to go beat someone to hell.”

_Break_

Annabeth was trying to be kind and polite as everyone readied her for her sparring match with Piper. She really didn’t see what this was going to help prove though, if anything it was going to give Reyna grounds to keep her locked up in a room for the rest of her life. “You know Percy, I always thought you were the one who was about thinking on your feet. Out there in the moment, that was when we were supposed to figure out if we shined or not.”

Everyone in the field glared at her and Thalia walked over just to smack her in the back of the head.

“Ow,” she cried, “why did you just hit me?”

“Somebody had to,” the wind blue the electric blue streak through Thalia’s jet black hair as she glared down at Annabeth with her piercing eyes. “Everybody else is going to tip toe around you but I’m not. I remember that seven year old girl that just wanted a family. The one that had to be hit every time she made a stupid mistake because she didn’t trust us; seriously Annabeth how far have you regressed?”

Her stormy grey eyes narrowed at the ground while she rubbed the back of her head. “It was just a question…”

“Okay,” Percy looked at her, pain filling ever visible part of his being as he looked into her eyes for the first time in what felt like forever and then looked at everybody else. “Then here’s the answer. People died Annabeth. Not just in this war, but in the last one as well. Two people had their memories wiped, I was missing for months, three of us fell into the pit of Hell, more people died, and people were put in jars.” His nostrils were flaring by the time he finished and Nico wondered why he saved the jar for last. “I guess after all that shit I want to make sure that there is some kind of plan this time.”

Not even Reyna knew how to respond to that. This was the most anyone had heard Percy speak in so long that they were all brought to tears by his words and just the sound of his voice. But Annabeth drug her gaze away from him and looked out towards the tops of the hills where her buildings were being constructed. A small smile ghosted over her lips, barely noticeable to the others. She knew that Percy was trying to protect her but if she were being honest with herself then Annabeth would have to say that if she froze out there she would want to die. Monster hunting and quests were all she knew, and while it might be nice to settle down eventually she didn’t want it to be because she had lost the ability to do something she had been doing her whole life. It would be like suddenly never being able to breathe the same air as everyone around you, Annabeth would feel as though she had been handicapped in a way that completely destroyed her life. 

Thalia narrowed her striking eyes at both of them and looked back and forth at the energy that they had between them. Nico was standing awkwardly off to the side as though he didn’t belong, and Thalia instantly felt bad for how she had treated him earlier. She could tell just how much he loved Percy, it was plain in his eyes when he thought no one was looking, and seeing Percy with his ex was hurting him. “I can’t believe you two,” Thalia growled at them, “both of you are acting like children and I have to step in and play mama. You’re worse than siblings, I get the feeling this is what it would be like if Travis and Conner had a fight. Percy, you know that it isn’t fair to bring up things that Annabeth doesn’t want to talk about, and Annabeth you can’t just keep brushing off everyone that tries to help you. Now both of you need to hug and apologize or I swear I will tie you two together until you actually solve something.”

Percy and Annabeth stared at Thalia with anger in their eyes, as if she had just insulted them worse than they had been insulting each other. “You’re not our mom Thalia,” Percy grumbled, “and I wouldn’t bring shit up if she would actually talk about it.” Crossing his arms over his chest Percy sat on the ground and drew his legs up to his chest. Nico smiled as he watched both Percy and Annabeth, granted he wasn’t happy to see them fighting but he wondered if this worked better for them. They were so close that they were practically brother and sister.

“Well I could always call your mom Percy,” Thalia drawled and smiled as his sea green eyes widened and looked to nearly pop out of his head.

“You wouldn’t,” Annabeth whispered in horror, her expression mirroring Percy’s. The two of them had been in Sally’s house so much together that they had often gotten in trouble with the woman, and when she was angry she was by no means kind. There had been a time when the two of them had started to get into an argument over one of Annabeth’s designs and she had called Percy stupid. Sally had spent two hours with each of them, forcing them to figure out what was going on and fix it. She had yelled at both of them and they ended up in time out, something that Annabeth hadn’t experienced since she was six. It was miserable.

Thalia’s evil smile widened and she tapped her finger to her chin, “Nico, how long would it take you to bring Mrs. Blofis here from New York?”

They all turned to see Nico actually smiling, a small chuckle escaping his lips and it was one of the most terrifying sounds either Annabeth or Percy had ever heard. “Oh, about five minutes maybe. I’m sure she would love to see her baby boy.”

“Okay!” Both of them yelled and turned to look at each other. “Just give us some privacy, please?” Annabeth whispered and Thalia nodded at Reyna before they walked away. Nico followed closely after, looking back over his shoulder briefly to catch Percy staring after him.

Annabeth’s eyes were shining with tears when Percy turned around and caught her eye. He felt bad, knowing what they had even if it had only been for a short while, but she had also moved on from him and they knew that it could never be the two of them again. “Annabeth,” he reached forward and took her hand, feeling it’s familiarity ring through his body. He remembered grabbing that very hand and trying to pull her from the pit…

“Percy,” she whispered, drawing his attention away from were their hands lay limp between them now. “Everything about me reminds you of that place now, doesn’t it?”

Immediately he shook his head. “No,” he told her, “not everything. There are things that do remind me,” he admitted, “but your smile, your laugh, you yourself… those things don’t make me think of being back there.”

She gave him a sad smile and he knew that it wasn’t the same for her. “There are things about you Percy,” she told him, “things like your giant eyes that get you anything you want, or how when we touch you can tell that we were meant to be a part of each other’s lives; but how is it you can still see me and have it not remind you of that hell. All I can see now is now much it changed you…”

He moved to her side and let Annabeth rest her head on his shoulder. She cried silently but he could feel the tears starting to soak his shirt. “Annabeth, you cope so much differently than I do. Don’t think I don’t see how Tartarus changed you because I do, but it brought out parts of you that I had already knew existed. It did the opposite to me, I know it did. I have been trying to work through it all but no matter what I will always be reminded that my loyalty to my friends turned out to be sorely lacking, and that I scared you…”

They were silent for a while before Annabeth spoke, whispering into his shoulder where her head was still rested. “What you did wasn’t what scared me the most…” she told him truthfully and felt his shift underneath her.

“Was it the curses?” He asked quietly.

Annabeth shook her head and turned up to look at him. “When we were down there, everything became about Nico,” Percy looked like he was going to interrupt but Annabeth held up her hand, “I am not saying that while we were there you didn’t love me, but I started to see how much your eyes told about your feelings. The sparkle they got when you thought about Nico, even if they were sad and you talked about how much you owed him. That was when I started to try and dig into facts to solve the problem, the idea that you were more grateful to Nico for being who he is than you were for me being down there. And then I started to notice how much Nico changed your life, all the time he was impacting it and I was too busy to notice. When you saw him after that I knew, I knew from the look in your eyes that you loved him…

“The worst part was that I wasn’t even jealous. I didn’t want to try and keep you with me, I was instantly protective. Both of us could tell that we weren’t going to last after the war, but I didn’t want to let you go because I was afraid Nico would hurt you. Every time I thought about it I thought of him leaving you because that was what he has done his entire life, he runs…

“I wanted to keep you from that, and I knew that if I could protect you I would.” She sniffled and looked at Percy, “But while we were down there, when you woke your new powers, I was barely able to stop you from killing someone. I know that you did it to protect us, but it took so long for me to get through to you that it scared me. You didn’t scare me with your powers, I scared myself with thinking of how hard it was to get you to stop. When I started thinking about Nico hurting you I could only think of how hard it was for my voice to reach you anymore, warn you that you may get hurt, and that was what scared me the most…”

When she was done talking she had a tear rolling down her cheek and Percy wiped it away without noticing. “You know they were right,” he told her, “When they said that we were worse than siblings and more like twins. But you obviously are the more mature, older one. And you need to know that the entire time you were calling to me I heard you… My ears will never be deaf to the sound of your voice, but I am just as protective of you as you are of me, and so it didn’t matter that you wanted me to stop because I didn’t want you to get hurt.” He smiled at her, “and now I am going to have to tell you something that you really aren’t going to like. I love Nico, you know that, but I love him so much that I am going to risk getting hurt. He hasn’t run yet, at least not for very long, and he needs me now just like I have always needed him. You have to let me make some of my own decisions Annie, even if there isn’t really a good track record for me you have to understand by now that I am going to do what I want regardless. And right now I want to gamble on being with Nico…”

She smiled at him but her eyes were still sad; “Then you have to understand that Nico is going to be getting a big sister talk from me,” she warned him and Percy’s face broke out in a grin.

“Better make it good to match up with the one I got from Hazel,” he told her and laughed.

“What did Hazel do?!”

“Oh no,” he laughed more, “if I told you then it would become a fight of ‘back off my brother’ between you two and that couldn’t end well.”   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, Annabeth and Piper will have their duel in the next update. Any idea on who wins? Let me know what you think is going to happen :) of course there will also be more Percico in the next chapter, getting into deep stuff for them now that they are both taking a chance on each other :)   
> Comment what all you think is going to happen between everyone, I love hearing your guys thoughts on it.  
> \- Megara, aka ThroughTheFog


	16. Building Blocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth has to prove that she can fend for herself after Tartarus had left her scarred, but can she do this? Nico sees the wreckage and must help Percy realize that he can't blame himself for everything anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the absence guys, I am sure you all can understand that finals week can take a lot out of a person. So here is the sixteenth chapter! Wow, I am still not sure how long this will go, but I will let you know as soon as I do. Enjoy!  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 16: Building Blocks

Leo was whistling as he came back with Piper at his heels. She yelled at him in the beginning but by the end of the whole trip the two of them arrived at the valley with only her grumbling about how terrible his whistling was.

“My whistling is amazing and you know it,” he told her with a smile and watched her roll her eyes at him. “Okay guys, I wrangled Manny Pacquiao back here.” All of them gave him puzzled looks and Leo rolled his eyes exasperated; “Okay, televisions for everyone and we have got to get you guys to see at least one boxing match.”

A communal groan filled the air and Piper noticed that neither Percy nor Annabeth were there. Her hand throbbed and she wondered if she would be able to fight without injuring it more, but she was not going to pass up this opportunity. “I have no idea what you’re talking about Valdez, but I have a feeling that Thalia wants to get going so can we hurry this up? I don’t want a silver arrow cutting my sparring match short.”

Off to the side were the few hunters that had come with Thalia to speak with Reyna. All of them had their arms crossed, they were all wearing white tank tops paired with grey pants and hiking boots with their packs on their backs making it obvious that they were ready to leave.

“We were giving both of them some time alone,” Nico spoke up and Piper followed his eyes to the top of the hill. She assumed that they were sitting underneath the tree up there, like she had done with Jason before. “They should be done soon.”

The tone in his voice was lonely and Piper knew that if he caught the look of pity that flashed over her features he would have been even more upset. After the war Piper knew that she had somewhat pushed herself onto Nico, being Jason’s girlfriend she had felt the need to connect with his friends, but over the short period of time that she had spent with Nico she had grown protective of him. While they didn’t have that much in common, and Piper knew that she was definitely not his favorite person in the world, she had seen him grow rather quickly. He had opened up, accepted who he was, and come out of his shell. Most of it was thanks to all the friends he had made, but part of it was because Nico had always wanted to belong. Taking a deep breath Piper walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder; “Everything is going to be fine,” her hand protested having pressure on it but she let it continue to linger on Nico until he moved out from underneath it.

As if on cue both Annabeth and Percy came bounding down the hill, Annabeth’s stormy eyes ringed with smile red veins that told she had been crying. Piper watched as she smiled, and for once it seemed as though the smile was more than just a calculated move to keep the others from asking her questions.

“Are we ready to do this?” Thalia looked at Annabeth and smiled before making her way towards her friend. “Make me proud,” she whispered before leading the rest of them out into the small field. Most of the grass was dead and crunched underneath their feet, Calypso looked around with her eyes filled with sorrow but she knew that soon they would be bringing life back to all of the areas affected by the war.

Once everyone had backed away from Annabeth and Piper the two girls looked to each other and nodded.

Piper saw Annabeth as the beautiful girl that had brought her to Camp Half Blood, the one to try and make her feel at home. She remembered hoping and wishing that her mother was Athena, but she had wound up in the Aphrodite cabin and been treated poorly by her siblings. Annabeth had been her guide through the new world, and had been the one to give her the courage to go on her first quest. She had been the one to encourage her to not give up on Jason… Piper saw the fear in those once strong eyes and she wanted nothing more than to reach out and touch her cheek. Wanted to see if that small action would bring hope to her eyes, if bringing her into a hug would purge her of everything that had corrupted her hope and strength that Piper had always admired.

Annabeth saw Piper and saw her struggling with something. Perhaps she really was as done with Annabeth as she had seemed back at the hospital. It was easy to see that Piper wanted her friend back, but Annabeth didn’t have the heart to tell her that she had lost part of herself down in that pit. “Don’t hold back on me Piper,” she instructed and brought her dagger from the sheath she had on her hip, “I won’t go easy on you.”

On the way over Leo had explained to Piper one thing; whatever it was that was bothering Annabeth about fighting it had to do with words. Leveling her voice she had to take into consideration that this wasn’t just her fighting Annabeth for fun, she had to prod at the sensitive spots in Annabeth’s armor to make sure that she would be safe for her quest.

“Oh I think we both know who will win this fight,” she soaked her words with as much charmspeak as she could manage and watched as Annabeth twitched underneath her gaze; “You and I are going to fight, but I am going to make it clear just how strong or broken you are.” Each word hurt to say, she knew that she was being cruel, but she also knew that they needed to be said. “Your fighting days are on the line here.”

With that she lunged at Annabeth, her own dagger in her strong hand, she managed to knock the weapon Annabeth had held easily out of the way. She saw that fear was rising in Annabeth’s eyes and she was fighting the urge to run away as she dodged Piper’s fist. Piper spun on her heel to catch Annabeth rolling on the ground away from her and she sheathed her dagger again before kicking Annabeth’s to the side to keep it away from her.  “I am not going to freeze up on you here,” Annabeth growled but they could all see her struggling to look at Piper as she got to her feet.

“Nobody,” Piper drew out the word just like Leo had told her too and all of a sudden she saw Annabeth grip her forehead, “should go easy on me right now.” Drawing up her knife she ran at the blonde before her and nearly cut Annabeth’s throat before she stopped herself.

Her dagger was less than an inch from Annabeth’s neck, but the girl beneath her was sobbing uncontrollably and fell to her knees. That moment everyone came rushing forward, but Piper lowered her knife and was at Annabeth’s side before anyone else could reach them.

“Hey,” she rested a hand on Annabeth’s shoulder and felt the girl beneath her shudder with another sob. “Annabeth, come on now this isn’t you.”

Percy was the next one to reach them and he gripped Annabeth by the shoulders to lift her up and look into her intense grey eyes.

“Leave me alone!” Annabeth screamed in his face and Percy let her go before moving back away from her. She fell forward again, clutching her head in her hands and crying hard.

All of them exchanged looks and Thalia moved closer to Reyna; the two of them spoke in hushed tones before Thalia gave her an approving nod and Reyna looked hesitantly over to Piper and Annabeth. Taking her leave she marched away from the scene so no one could see her eyes gloss over with tears.

“Annabeth,” Thalia’s voice was soft as she sat down next to both Annabeth and Piper. Piper was still in shock by how badly Annabeth was breaking down but she let Thalia push her aside. Instantly Annabeth curled into Thalia’s lap, soaking the front of the hunter’s shirt with her tears and shaking so badly that they all thought she was literally going to fall apart.

“If I can’t fight anymore,” Annabeth tried to breath but her lungs didn’t want to expand. “If I- c-can’t p-p-p-rotec-ct myself then,” Thalia was running her fingers through Annabeth’s blonde hair and trying to soothe her with nonsense words. “I c-c-can’t live like this!” everyone around them stared wide eyed at Annabeth, wondering what she truly meant by it all.

Thalia gripped Annabeth by her arms then, Pushing her away from her chest Thalia looked Annabeth in the eyes, “Don’t you dare talk like that,” her voice was stern but her eyes were broken as she looked at her best friend. She tried to pull herself together, tried to make it through her speech, but a tear broke free regardless of her efforts.

“But,” Annabeth saw the tear roll down her friends cheek and something inside her gave her the strength to reach out and brush it away. “I’m broken and that isn’t anyone’s fault.”

Without thinking Thalia gripped Annabeth’s chin so hard that the older girl flinched in pain. “The good thing about being broken is that you can be fixed.”

_Break_

 

Nico saw the hurt look that marred Percy’s face. He pulled Percy away and left Thalia to handle Annabeth after her breakdown, deciding that Percy needed to have someone calm him down and remind him that what happened wasn’t his fault.

“Hey,” Nico brought Percy’s face towards him and looked into the sea green eyes he had always loved. “You can’t let yourself think she blames you,” he told Percy, but he could see the look of pure guilt within his facial features. “Annabeth… she loves you it’s just that right now, she has a hard time showing it…”

An awkward silence filled the air between them. Nico had taken Percy to one of the tents in the field and no one had thought it wise to follow a determined son of Hades. “She… she has every right to hate me though. If I had just been there for her! If I had never done what I did! All I had to do was listen to her but I didn’t hear her clearly! I heard—,”

“Percy!” Nico interrupted him before he could finish and when Percy met his eyes he didn’t see the ‘Son of Hades’ or ‘The Ghost King’ he saw a boy braver than anyone he had ever met. He saw someone who cared for him at his worst, loved him for his flaws, and would always stand by his side. “You can’t focus on the if’s,” Nico’s voice drug him up from drowning, kept him drinking the fire, pulled him from Ogygia. There was nothing that Nico couldn’t do if Percy paid close enough attention.

So just maybe, Nico could heal him. Mend the wounds he had inflicted upon himself just as Percy had sworn to bandage Nico up. He rested his body against Nico’s and looked into Nico’s endless eyes, feeling as though he were about to be swallowed whole. The feeling brought fear to him but not in the way that he thought it would. Once he had been afraid of drowning in earth, now he was afraid of missing the chance to drown in Nico. To drown Nico as well. He felt something bubble to the surface and he knew that it must be love because he had never felt it before. Words wouldn’t form on his tongue, his chest ached knowing that at any moment Nico would leap into a shadow and never return, the knowledge that he had told Annabeth the same exact words and had done such awful things around her.

“I don’t know how to do this,” Percy confided in Nico as the two of them collapsed on the floor. Nico help Percy close to him, seeing the lost look in his eyes.

He brushed hair out of Nico’s face and sighed. “You don’t know how to do what?”    

“To,” Percy inhaled sharply before letting himself relax against Nico, “to not be the hero… I have never felt someone care for me this strongly and I just don’t know how to handle it…” There was no way that he could tell Nico he loved him, even after all that they had been through. Some part of him just alerted him to the fact that it was too soon for that. “I guess you could say I am used to caring more… Being the protector.”

“You have always protect me,” Nico whispered and couldn’t believe that he was hearing Percy open up this much. “But I can take care of you as well. Pieces work better when they support each other, not take from each other.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you guys think. Should Annabeth be able to go on her quest, or should she stay behind with Reyna? And Percy and Nico, there will be more development there but how far do you think the two are willing to go? Let me know! Also there is soon going to be a short 1 chapter story on what happened with Piper and Jason, after reading it I would love to hear what you all think of their relationship now and if they should salvage it.  
> Love you guys!  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog


	17. Hello, Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annabeth makes a decision that will change her life, and possible everyone else's. Nico and Percy come out to their friends and it is a battle of the protective "siblings". Some smut ensues, don't like don't read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Such a long absence... To put it into some sort of perspective this is my day: work 8-10 hours, run to class for another 6, crash at my place of work for 2 hours, and then work until its time for class again. Its been a fun few weeks. Anyways here is the chapter that I hope you all enjoy, some smut for Percy and Nico that is greatly deserved.   
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

Chapter 17: Goodbye, Hello

For another hour Annabeth stayed on the top of the hill where she and Percy had their first actual fight since they broke up. Once Thalia had calmed her down she realized what she had done, and while she felt bad she also couldn’t really say it was the wrong thing to do at the time. Ever since they returned a part of Annabeth would always fear Percy, and Percy had wanted to help her so badly after everything that happened that it had overwhelmed her. After he realized how scared she was of him, an embarrassing night terror that had her crying in fear of him, he had backed off and they had drifted apart… It needed to happen though, she knew how he felt about Nico and she knew that she couldn’t love him like that anymore.

Thalia had decided to take Annabeth with them, for which she was grateful, but she also knew that she was a liability now. So Thalia had to be by her side at all times and hopefully help her figure out a way to move past her block. Thalia had told her that they would fix her, but Annabeth had a feeling that even if she got to where she was functioning she would never be fully fixed. There would always be cracks in her armor now, tender spots that would break her again every so often. And then there were the nightmares and the fear every day that she knew would never fully go away.

Sighing she grabbed the bag she had packed and stood up. Thalia was walking up to her and she smiled as the two of them headed away to the edge of town where Annabeth would say goodbye to everyone. She hoped that Reyna would be there, it hurt that she had left but in an odd way Annabeth could understand. One of her favorite things about Reyna was that she knew when Annabeth needed space, but now more than ever she wanted to see her…

“Are you ready to go?” Thalia asked with a smile, not mentioning her breakdown outright because she knew that it was obvious and didn’t need to be addressed again. “I think everyone is going to be gathering for you so they can tell you goodbye.”

A small smile crept up to Annabeth’s lips as she saw the protective look in Thalia’s eyes, one that she knew she could trust.

“Of course I’m ready,” and for once Annabeth felt confident in what she was saying. She knew that if she was with Thalia nothing else mattered because she would be safe. Thalia always protected her, even if it meant giving her own life, and that was something that Annabeth needed at the moment.

_Break_

Neither Nico nor Percy were sure how to announce that they may be seeing each other. Percy figured everyone would just catch on and that they didn’t have to do anything different, but Nico wasn’t sure just how public he wanted to be yet. As comfortable as he had gotten with himself he was still a social anomaly, unrefined in being a person. So he had decided to make a small show after Annabeth left and keep it downplayed so people wouldn’t go into shock.

Percy compromised as long as Nico promised that no matter what was going on they didn’t just hide.

So while the two of them were waiting for Annabeth and Thalia, Percy kept close to Nico. He touched him every so often, nothing to noticeable but enough to know that Nico wouldn’t be leaving. A brush over the hand, across the lower back, and one actually taking Nico and linking their pinky fingers. They were both still new to the relationship, and the touching didn’t go unnoticed by Hazel who was already aware and just rolled her eyes at them. She also occasionally would glare a warning at Percy, daring him to make a wrong move.

The others were with them, Jason fist bumped both of them and pulled them into a group hug as he breathed out the words, “So proud, I knew it,” before turning around a waving Piper over. “You owe me twenty bucks,” he told her without lowering his voice.

“Crap,” she muttered but smiled, “I was betting one of you would make a big scene about it,” pulling out her wallet from her back pocket Nico noticed her hand as she gave Jason the twenty dollar bill. He was about to say something when Jason caught it.

“What happened to your hand?” he asked and took it ever so gently. She flinched from him and Nico quickly looked to Percy who had caught the fear in Piper’s actions. Reaching out Nico took Percy’s hand in his and got his attention. He squeezed it reassuringly and smiled at him.

Nico let go too soon for his liking and moved closer to Jason and Piper. “Let me look,” he smiled at them both and raised his hands to wiggle his fingers, “I’m good with bones and shit,” his smile grew as they rolled their eyes but Nico took Piper’s hand none the less. He was gentle, and Piper marveled over how well he examined her injury, not once causing her pain as he looked her over. Then he pulled a roll of bandaging out of his pocket and began to wrap her wrist, around her palm, and up. Percy watched him with attentive eyes, wondering silently how many times Nico had patched himself up like that.

“You just have bandaging in your pocket?” Jason asked, his mouth working on auto pilot as he admired Nico’s work. He didn’t even notice Nico pause or Percy tense protectively beside him.

Instead of panicking like Percy had thought Nico would he just laughed. “Well you know how clumsy Percy is, so I snagged a roll of gauze from the hospital before we left. Don’t need him bleeding out on me.” The topic wasn’t really joke worthy but Nico certainly got the suspicion away from him. Things went silent and Percy blushed before rubbing at his own wounds. Ambrosia worked fast so he could probably take the bandaging off soon.

“Are you okay?” Jason asked seriously, “I mean, I wasn’t there when you woke up…” his eyes shifted from Percy to Nico who subconsciously reached back and took Percy’s hand, puling the other closer to him. “I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Jason admitted and Nico gave him a small smile.

It was rare for anyone to catch an honest smile on Nico’s face, even now, and while guilt still churned in Jason’s stomach he hoped that this change in Nico would last. “Just remember that not everyone who looks like their dealing fine really are fine.”

“Are you fine?” Jason asked and he truly wanted to know.

Nico couldn’t help but smirk, he wasn’t ready to tell Jason the truth. He wasn’t even ready now that Percy _knew_ the truth. So he let Jason catch his smirk, ignored the eye roll, and drawled: “Well of course I’m fine, have you seen me?” And then he used his free hand to sweep down his body. He knew that Leo had rubbed off on him, but it worked to blend into a crowd.

He was thankful that no one had to buy it though since Annabeth and the hunters came walking through. Annabeth met Percy’s eyes and her smile was sad, but Percy returned one that showed he couldn’t hold anything against her. She was saying her goodbyes when Reyna came running down the beat up trail, people swarmed in the area for construction but she shoved her way past until she was standing in front of Annabeth breathless.

“You came to say goodbye,” Annabeth couldn’t help the sound of relief and happiness that filled her voice and Reyna smiled at her. She went weak in the knees and Thalia wasn’t sure if she would need to help her stand. “I thought you weren’t going to…” she admitted and Reyna’s smile widened as she watched Annabeth blush.

“Are you kidding?” Reaching out Reyna cupped Annabeth’s cheek. “I love you,” they both blushed dark red at that but didn’t mention that this would be the first time that the love phrase had not been prefixed with _I think_. Instead Reyna just took Annabeth’s hand and pulled her closer. She was taller than Annabeth, if only by a little, but she loved it. “I am so glad I wasn’t too late,” leaning down she brought them even closer together and whispered into Annabeth’s ear; “When you get back, it will be you and I together, okay?”

Annabeth tilted her head to look at Reyna, “Wasn’t it always us?”

Smiling Reyna leaned in to kiss her, when she pulled back she looked behind her, glad that at least her friends were giving them privacy. “I won’t be praetor for much longer, just through this rebuild. So when you get back I will have more time for you. More time for us,” she knew she must look like a dork as her smile widened but she couldn’t help it when she saw how bright Annabeth’s eyes got.

“You didn’t have to do that Reyna,” but even as she said that she was pulling Reyna down to kiss her.

Laughing Reyna broke apart for air and to look at Annabeth, “Well you know that I have been talking about college, now I can go. We can go together,” she watched Annabeth brighten and reached out as she was assaulted by her brute force. Holding her tight they kissed and Reyna couldn’t remember being happier. She let Annabeth down and looked back at their group, rolling her eyes as Nico mimed gagging.

“Things will be changing in New Rome,” she smiled brightly and spoke with pride, “and I can’t wait for everyone to be a part of the happiness.”

Thalia motioned that it was time to go, but Annabeth had one more thing she had to do before she could leave. She told Thalia to head out, that she would only be a minute and could catch up. Then she made her way past Reyna and towards Percy whose eyes widened. Instead of talking to him though Annabeth reached out for Nico and pulled the boy away from Percy so that they were facing each other.

“I love Percy,” she told him and could see pain in his eyes, “he is stupid and irrational all the time. But he is my brother. I will always love him, and I will always protect him,” leaning in she narrowed her eyes with Nico’s so he knew she was serious, “if you hurt him, don’t think your powers will help you against me. He is one of the most important people in my life, and I will fight for his happiness.”

Nico respected her for standing up to him, but he knew that she had nothing to worry about.

“I think he understands Annabeth,” Piper was by his side, her injured hand wrapping around his arm. “But I must admit that the Nico bashing is getting old… I know love when I see it,” she looked past Annabeth to Reyna and her face clouded with an emotion that Annabeth didn’t understand. “I am pretty sure that Thalia left a big enough impression on him anyways,” as quick as she had looked at Reyna she looked away and Annabeth wasn’t able to place the expression. Instead she was facing the sharp ever changing colors once more.

What Piper did was sweet, but Nico didn’t need her to protect him. He moved his arm away from her and chuckled, “Piper, give Annabeth a break. If anything all she will need to stay strong out there is imagine me hurting Percy and she will be fueled to fight an army.” Turning his smile to Annabeth he nodded, “You don’t have to worry.” Then, looking over to Reyna he met her gaze and turned back to Annabeth, “and I hope I don’t have to either.”

Annabeth looked over her shoulder and turned around with a smile on her face. “I don’t think you will,” she made the decision on a whim but she pulled both Piper and Nico into a hug, waving Percy over as well. Jason joined them along with Hazel and Frank, Leo bouncing over with all his energy and dragging Calypso with him. “I will miss you guys,” Annabeth felt a tear roll down her cheek and laughed before breaking apart from the group and running back to Reyna. She pulled Reyna in for another kiss and then looked her in the eyes, “I love you too,” leaning up she pecked Reyna on the cheek and smiled. Reyna was in shock and Annabeth forced her to blush so deep she knew Nico would never let her live it down.

And then Reyna was watching Annabeth walk away, taking a part of her with her. She wasn’t even aware that she was playing with the owl at her throat.

_Break_

That night after dinner all the transfer “campers” that would be attending school had to meet in the common area of the dorms. Nico still wasn’t sure how well sharing a room with Percy was going to go, but Reyna hadn’t moved them. She was standing as regally as ever in front of both Romans’ and Greeks’ in the dorms as she announced: “Tomorrow you will all be attending your new classes!” people groaned but Reyna pretended to ignore them, “they will be short, only an introduction since many of you need to finish registering, but because it will be so short the evening will have work set aside for all of you.” Her cheerful tone maked Nico angry with her work ethic, but he knew it needed to be done. “All of you need to sleep well for tomorrow,” he swore he could see her make eye contact with him and Percy but ignored it. “Good luck!”

And then, like a stampede, both Nico and Percy were whisked off to their dorm.

_Break_

It became obvious very quickly that the Stolls were not going to leave Percy and Nico alone their first night in their room. Every two minutes one of them would know on the door from the bathroom with something perverted and annoying to say.

A loud bang sounded as Nico was drying his hair from a hot shower, Percy was already in his pajamas and lounging on his bed as he snuck momentary glances at Nico from behind a comic book. They both jumped at the noise, their fighting instincts kicking in. “Do you two need any lube or condoms?” One of the twins called and jiggled the doorknob only to find that Nico had already locked it. He knew that it wouldn’t keep them out for long though.

Nico’s whole body went ridged and he started for the door. Percy quickly recognized the look in Nico’s eyes and was up, ignoring the fact that Nico had yet to put on anything more than his sweats he pulled the boy towards him. The fact that Nico was tense and his muscles moved against Percy in a way he had never experienced before was only barely distracting, “You can’t just plague them with ghouls my ghost king,” he chuckled and turned Nico around in his arms. “There is too much we should be doing instead.”

The blush that reddened Nico’s pale olive skin was to die for and Percy knew then that sharing a room with Nico was going to be harder than he had originally thought. Nico wasn’t like Annabeth, there was no way that Percy could hold him and not have at least one impure thought cross his mind. No, Nico sparked something deep within Percy that started to burn white hot behind his eyelids. The way his muscles shifted under his skin yet he still looked soft and delicate, or the way that he managed to blink his freakishly long eyelashes. Tattoos peeked out at Percy and he wanted to run his fingers over them, the scars that seemed to look so out of place yet rightfully there made Percy want to shelter Nico from the world. But he knew that by doing that he would be selfish so instead he encompassed Nico in his arms and adjusted to the fact that Nico was no longer that much shorter than him. “Let them do what they want,” Percy mumbled and kissed Nico’s forehead. He could feel Nico heating up in his embrace; “and we can do what we want.”

“What… what do you want to do?” Nico’s voice came out so scared and soft that Percy’s heart skipped a beat and he pulled back the want to be bad boy with a smile.

Moving his hands up to cup both sides of Nico’s face Percy kissed him so deeply he thought he might pass out. “Aside from that,” Percy smiled and chuckled as Nico shivered beneath him, not quite pulling far enough away to break the kiss but just enough to speak, “I want one night where I can hold you and know that you will be there in the morning.”

Relief flooded through Nico and he suddenly had his tease back as he came to terms with the fact that they weren’t going to be going that far that night. He wrapped his arms around Percy and drug him to the bed, biting lightly at Percy’s lower lip to get him to follow. Nico dug his fingers into Percy’s side so the two of them fell together on the bed and Percy was above him. Hovering. Panting.

Percy’s pupils were blown out with lust as he gazed down at Nico underneath him and fought the urge to bite and mark the beautiful Italian as his own. “You can’t do this to me Nico,” Percy warned with a mischievous grin and dipped his head down to breathe against Nico’s ear, “I may end up not being able to stop myself.”

And then without another word Percy collapsed on top of Nico who struggled beneath him and the two of them laughed. Once Nico had forced Percy to the side the two were content with being held in each other’s warmth and Percy played with Nico’s new haircut. He let his fingers explore the long silky top before dipping into the shorter sides and earning a content hum from Nico.

“Tell me about your tattoos?” Percy asked through a yawn and Nico smirked.

“Tomorrow,” he chuckled. But even as he fell asleep he rested his hand over the small tattoo on his chest. A simple script that said, _I will do my best_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope you guys liked it! My schedule should calm down here soon but until then please kudos and comment, I love seeing the responce :)  
> -Megara aka ThroughTheFog

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, let me know if I should continue or not and comment on anything you would like. Smut is destined to follow and this is a Percico fanfic not a Nico/Will I promise.


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